Abu Dis Wednesday afternoon, March 30 2005Watchers: Daniela G., Laura S., Ronit S. (reporting)Cliff Hotel: Though the hotel looks deserted, upon arrival a border policeman looked at us through a second-floor window and signaled that we must leave. We left.Pishpash gate: Three BPs standing, not checking IDs. Traffic was slow, half of the people passing through the monastery and the other half through a wide gap on the left side of the new wall. Palestinians told us that soldiers brought over some rocks in an attempt to block the gap, but that local people dismantled it soon after.The New CP located behind the pishpash (you cross to the other side and walk two minutes) was not manned. The local Palestinians said that it is manned every day, and reckoned that perhaps because of Land Day it was abandoned. (We were not convinced by this reasoning.) The BP on the western side of the wall told us that the checkpoint there still exists. The Container: We had a very unpleasant argument with the checkpoint commander, who yelled at us and at a Palestinian we were trying to aid: “Yallah, go away already.” His yelling was accompanied with threatening hand motions. We considered calling a senior officer and complaining, but decided against. Before we left we approached him with another question, which he answered us (though not with a pleasant face).Apart from the unsympathetic faces, the BPs were okay and traffic moved at a reasonable pace. Several times there was a line of 20-30 cars, which was shortly after reduced. As always, there were several short periods of time during which no soldier was attending one of the sides of the checkpoints, leaving Palestinians to wait in vain. We were there about 40 minutes, during which there were some 40 detainees. They were either release immediately or within 15 minutes.Regarding prohibition on the passage of Palestinians with Israeli IDs into areas A:Following Amira Hass’s article this week, we asked a few people whether travel was indeed forbidden. One BP said that as far as he knows, such a restriction is long standing. We asked whether this was enforced in the past, and he said, “I always have.”A Palestinian woman who lives in the house adjunct to the kiosk at the Container said that she has an Israeli ID card, and hasn’t been to Bethlehem in three years (she is originally from Jabel Mukaber). Her husband has a Palestinian ID, and he goes.A Palestinian man from Abu Dis told us that he knows two people who were fined, one NIS 3,000 and the other NIS 5,000, after they had returned to Jerusalem from area A. We were not completely convinced by the story.What is clear, though, is that there is an increasing effort to cut east Jerusalem from the West Bank, and this is just another measure.