Abu-Dis 15/5/2004 Watchers: Rina D., Neta A. The Pishpash gate. No BP present. Everyone crosses. Near Beit Faja, a unit of court officers (6 men and a supervisor) stop all the cars and check them for old debts and liabilities. A BP soldier aids them. I ask them why they don’t stand on Aza Street in Jerusalem and Ibn Gabirol St. in Tel Aviv… This is infuriating and frustrating. A mobile checkpoint at the entry to Ezariya (behind the exit to Ma’ale Adumim). This CP can be reached only by car. This is not a new CP. We routinely stop here en route to the container (see previous reports). This CP operates early in the morning (on the way back from the container the jeep is still there, but not operative). Occasionally it operates in the afternoon too. On previous occasions, we noticed that our presence speeded matters up. there is a long line of cars. The checking itself is relatively fast and perfunctory. Only 4 BP soldiers man the checkpoint: one guards, one checks IDs, one checks cars and one supervises. This takes time. Occasionally they confiscate IDs of all the passengers in a taxi, and then the process can last an hour (GSS again???) Interestingly, pedestrians who walk the path near the CP are not checked. Typical “security” logic. The container. We met the Ecumenical volonteers and asked them to check the CPs that we cannot reach (Obaddiya, Bet-Sahur). Traffic flows. A group of women are taken off a bus and checked separately in the tent. Trucks carrying boxes of potato chips are thoroughly checked. 2 drivers are ordered to unload all the cardboard boxes and open some of them. Was there a warning concerning a shipment of chips? Or is it the petty revenge of the BP soldier wreaked on a driver who “misbehaved”?