Abu-Dis, Sawahre 18.2.2004 Ayelet E., Rochelle L. and Sylvia P. (reporters) Container (watchtower in Sawahre). When we first arrived, there was one soldier resting on one of the barriers in a reclining position. He was waving everybody signaling them to pass. Everything was moving along smoothly and quickly. Ten minutes later a new group of Border Patrol arrived and although nobody was being stopped they were checking every car and every pedestrian. Nonetheless, these were quiet and efficient. We wondered why the need to check those cars and pedestrians; why they suddenly became “dangerous”.We spoke to a group of men near the taxi stand and heard a story about a soldier hitting a child because the child was answering him in sassy way and that some tear gas was thrown resulting in an elderly women fainting. This was to have happened in the Pishpash gate in Abu-Dis (they called it Abuaba checkpoint) around 4:00 p.m. the day before. Did anybody hear about or see this incident? They said that things were not so quiet in Abu-Dis also at the time we were there, and so we decided to get there as soon as possible. Abu-Dis. Unfortunately things were not as orderly there. We approached the Pishpash gate, and saw the usual agglomeration of people and Transits. However, we were told that there are soldiers on the other side, and they are causing much trouble. So, we advanced towards the wall (the “low” wall) and saw a soldier – Dudu – on the left hand extreme of the wall talking to someone on the other side through a notch of the wall.We then approached the “gate” on the right hand side of the wall – the point where people use to cross the wall since the 9 meters one has been built. As you know the “gate” is a makeshift ladder (groups of rocks piled on top of each other) where people use to climb in order to pass from one side to the other. We crossed the “gate” to the other side – it was not easy and we wondered how are mothers carrying babies able to cross it. But, as we all know, they do.And indeed there were two Border Patrol soldiers there. One of them – Gabi – was somehow talking with Dudu who was on the other side. But it came out that Gabi speaks Arabic, and some people approached him with their IDs and begged for something. We didn’t understand why they approached him since he was not calling them. We didn’t understand what they were discussing either. The second soldier – Alexander – was in the middle of the “gate”, and was pretty tough – he was not arrogant but he was not helpful either. He checked IDs very slowly and it created a long queue. Some people, who were not allowed to pass, stood on the side – among them a group of workers from Al-Mukassed Hospital.We called Ran Kravitz – DCO Abu-Dis – (056–234124) and someone else answered the phone. We told how the situation looked there and asked for his intervention. He said he is coming. Suddenly Alexander got a phone call and things improved a little.We tried to help an elderly woman who had recently had a heart operation. She needed to go over since she was not feeling well. But because she had no special permit they would not allow her even after our intervention. We called the Humanitarian Center (Moked Humanitari – 9977733) and were answered by someone pretty rude. We were told that without a permit she could not go to the hospital in Jerusalem even with a letter from her doctor. She can get a permit in the DCO in Bethlehem, “very easy”.One man waiting to climb over to get to Jerusalem asked in a voice that was weary, what would we do in his situation. “How long could I wait patiently?”.