Abu Dis, Ras Abu Sbitan (Olive Terminal), Walaja, Mon 14.10.13, Morning
Walajeh
We drove to Walaje to see what's new with construction and with the checkpoints. We saw how the wall winds around the village and encloses it. For the house left outside, there's a small doorway for passage, but the question is: where's the key? From our experience, it's mostly not found.
The road to Jerusalem is open, but at its end there's a checkpoint open only to Israelis. And so, one more Palestinian village is disconnected from the metropolitan life while the adjacent Israeli suburb, Har Gilo, sprouts new buildings and its residents move freely to the Israeli capital.
Olive Terminal
We witnessed the arrest of two youths who had crossed the unfinished fence in the area. They were lead to the hill and into the checkpoint from the posterior side which is not open.
Traffic at the checkpoint was lively and no lines were reported
Abu Dis / Lazarus gate (formerly The Wicket)
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Abu Dis / Lazarus Checkpoint/Gate (east of the former “wicket”)
Construction of the wall in the Abu Dis area blocked all the gaps that allowed people to cross from al-Ezariya to the neighbourhoods of Abu Dis and Ras al 'Amud that are located within Jerusalem’s municipal boundary. The Lazarus checkpoint is a gate in the wall adjacent to the Lazarus Monastery. Until 2011 it had a door for pilgrims to al-Ezariya and for the monastery’s kindergarten pupils from al-Ezariya. The crossing is currently closed, but the site has infrastructure for conducting inspections.
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Al-Walaja
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Al-Walaja
A checkpoint for vehicles, located on the Green Line, in Nahal Refaim National Park. Staffed by Border Police and private security companies and active 24 hours a day. Palestinians are not allowed to cross, except for residents of East Jerusalem. Preparations are made to move the checkpoint so that The Ein Haniya spring, which has been used by the villagers for generations, will be permanently blocked for Palestinians, as will the the access to the 1,200 dunams of their surrounding agricultural land. Machsomwatch has been in contact with the people of village and reported on their changing situation over the years. (See the link to the reports)
Part of the village is in the municipal territory of Jerusalem drawn after 1967. In 2009 the village was surrounded by a separation barrier (mostly a wall) and then demolitionx of houses in the Jerusalemite part were carried out due to lack of building permits (but the fact is that no outline plan was prepared for the village, therefore it is impossible to get any permit for construction). In 2018, a petition was submitted to stop the demolitions, and it was agreed that the village, with the help of the organizations "Bimkom" and "Ir Amim" will prepare an outline plan, while the demolitions orders will be freezed. Despite the fact that the approval process is underway and soon to be discussed in court, a decision was approved in August 2023 to demolish 6 houses immediatly . Protest actions by inhabitants and various organizations, including Machsomwatch are now taking place to cancel this decree.
updated to August 2023
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