Abu-Dis, Sawahre 12/5/2004 Watchers: Sylvia P., Ruthy R., Levana R. (reporting) We started at the Cliff Hotel, which has been occupied by BP. We saw also armed people with civilian clothes. Two soldiers ate in a jeep; a soldier instigated two women to go back – they didn’t have the right documents. A soldier made clear that the area is theirs. In the meanwhile, Ruthy and Sylvia entered into the area where there were four detainees. After a softening chat with him, the soldier explained that the people coming from the west side of the road have the right to go around freely, but the detainees came from the east. He promised that after checking the IDs they would be sent back. He ordered the detainees to stand under the building pillars (in fact the soldiers wanted to hide them from us). A BP guarded them, while eating. The shift of the armed civilian was over and he left; Elad entered the hotel – and he tells us, answering a question: “Do I look like a settler?” We gave a look to the settler building: there were some soldiers (three or more; a week ago there was only a civilian guard) and a big flag on the roof. We didn’t see settlers.On our way to the Pishpash gate we met Terry Balata, who lives on the “right side” and has the “right ID color”, heading to the school she founded and manages. She told us that in spite of excellent legal defense, she was refused three times a blue ID for her husband (a relative of the Hotel’s owner). Actually, they have no hope to get a blue ID for him in the context of family reunion since he was in the Israeli jail. She ironically pointed out that it was a good situation, since this way they didn’t have all eggs in one basket — one of the parents is a West Banker and the other a Jerusalem resident. The husband has a permit to move freely from 7:00 to 19:00, and at night he is illegal in his home. Terry told us that the owner who sold the house to the settlers had a blue ID for a long time already. He sold the house when he realized that he was going to lose in court. “He is not a collaborator. Don’t believe the gossip,” she said. The Pishpash gate. People crossed without problems. Amazing how the conformity mechanism works — a wall blocks most of the street, there is a tiny opening, and we say: “free crossing”. When we were approaching the container, we saw a long queue of trucks. The checkpoint is busy but the vehicles cross. They stopped arbitrarily trucks and vans loaded with goods, and the drivers had to bring down everything for checking and then put it back. Among them, there was a van full of furniture, arranged like a puzzle. There were also five refrigerators, and the soldiers wanted to see what was inside. The driver was quite desperate after he had arranged and tied all the pieces and covered the refrigerators with nylon to protect them from the dust. We helped him to bring down the furniture and left him when he was loading the truck.There were 12 detainees (they told us that they were waiting for 3 hours). They claimed that they had crossed through the checkpoint. Among them was an accountant from Hebron on his way to Ramallah. We asked Igo, one of the BP soldiers, and he said there were problems with the terminal. After we talked with him quietly and patiently, the terminal problem was solved and the detainees were called one by one to get their IDs back. They went back home – either it was too late to arrive to work or they were told to go back. Igo said that “they were free to go where they wanted… but this is not the way to Ramallah…” Back to the Pishpash gate. Two soldiers stood on a high stone and checked IDs. We meet three young boys that waited to their IDs. At the beginning, they said that they were doctors; afterwards they said that they were medical students and asked for help. A jeep arrived and took them for enquiries; the soldier (BP) was very aggressive saying the least and refused to identify himself.