Wadi Nar and Abu Dis 30.06.04 amMonitors: Sylvie P., Ayelet E., Noa G. (guest), Rutie R. (reporting) On the way to Wadi Nar there is almost no traffic. At Az-Za’ayyem checkpoint there is no traffic either — the deceptive quiet of morning. A young woman walks on the road turning towards the Container. Traffic flows at the Container as well, they check the ID cards of the transit passengers and return them relatively quickly. Traffic flows in the Bethlehem direction as well though few of those crossing from Bethlehem do so without being bothered. They delay a bus from Jericho, one of the passengers converses with us: “every day it’s like this. To live in Bethlehem is like living in a prison, you can’t leave the city, it’s impossible to go anywhere.We stood there for about an hour and on the way back, after passing the sheep and goats, we saw some cars delayed at Az-Za’ayyem, not too many but delayed all the same, one of which was a car already delayed at the Container. Another checkpoint at the entrance to Jerusalem that we cross without being checked, though in sum the drive from French Hill to Wadi Nar to Abu Dis takes up almost half the time of our shift. How much time it must take a Palestinian to drive the same way, and the amount of total control exercised over his life this demonstrates?!In Abu Dis everything is almost the same, except for the fact that children are on vacation and now they, too, jump over the wall with mothers, babies, heavy bags, the women with their baskets of vegetables, etc., etc.On the way back we encountered another checkpoint at the exit of Abu Dis and next to the Old City. They checked cars, and before the turn to Har Zion, about 6 policemen with a jeep stopped a car driven by a young man and woman. The young man stood facing the wall. We didn’t stop in time in order to return Ayelet. I circled later around the Old City but we arrived too late, no one was there…