Abu-dis 06/02/2004 Watchers: Rita M., Barbara S., Osi M. (reporter), a guest At the Fadge passage we haven’t seen any soldiers nor Palestinians. On the eastern side the preparations for the wall can be seen. At the Pishpash gate – no soldiers, many are passing and taxis are waiting to take them. One or two PB vehicles passed by while we’ve been there and haven’t stopped. The taxi drivers told us that soldiers have been there earlier, and in general they let people pass. However, there are policemen and soldiers on many spots on the way to Jerusalem and on the gates of the old city, and it’s hard for those who don’t have blue IDs to get to Jerusalem. Van drivers took only those with blue IDs, being aware to the checkpoints and being afraid for their vehicles. Those with green or orange IDs went only by bus.We looked for those checkpoints. Indeed, we saw a BP jeep on the road next to the cemetery of Mount Scopus, but the policemen sat inside the jeep and didn’t stop any passing car for the whole time we’ve been there (about 15 min). One of the policemen told us that only those with permits are allowed to go through. Yet, we saw that they let an old man go through and had the impression that they were wiling to let the other two to go on as well. The three were detained when we arrived, and the old one (having a green ID) was allowed to pass short time after we’ve arrived and after he’d been questioned (we didn’t hear the conversation). They then talked to the other two. We got the feeling that as long as we’re watching them they won’t let the two pass.We’ve been to Abu-Dis only, didn’t get to the container.