Abu Dis/ Container Friday 26.8.05 – 9:00am to 1:30 pmobservers: Mikhal Z, Claire O, Efrat B, Rita M (reporting)AN AMBUSH CHECKPOINT and A LESSON IN OBEDIENCEAbu Dis: The lower gate: soldiers are letting people go through the bars of the gate that have been bent open.Pishpash: soldiers here are less lenient, turn back several local residents, including a family with small children, when we ask why some people can pass and others not, the soldier in charge of the checkpoint answers “we act according to our judgment”. That is the ordinary routine of life in the occupied territories – you never know when the judgment of the soldier will let you pass to live your life, to go to work, school, the doctor, or not.Cliff hotel: there are soldiers on the top floor, a BP jeep arrives. the large outdoor reflectors on the roof are still on, in broad daylight – this was reported earlier this week too – while the government sees fit to cut social welfare, education and health budgets. On the eastern side of the wall, near the mosque and unfinished Parliament building:(we drove into Al Ezariya to show our new members the other side of the wall) we see a transit being checked by BP. their jeep is hidden, in ambush position, inside the unfinished concrete structure of what is to become the splendid gate of the Palestinian Parliament, if that ever becomes a reality. It seems that only one of the men is detained – the others are his brothers. they are from Hebron, and are going to Ramallah. they have been there for two hours they say. The BP in charge says that they checked the IDs of all the men, and there is some question about the one who is detained, so they are trying to contact the GSS – shabak – to clarify the matter. Apparently the BP does not get through to them, or they are taking their time, and we insist that he keep trying every ten minutes. After half an hour of waiting, we decide to drive to the Container, while we exchange phone numbers with the brothers.When we return, the man has been arrested and is already inside the jeep, the BP in charge confirms that they got an answer from the GSS and are taking the man for interrogation. The brothers insist he is innocent – they say that his ID was checked at the Container and nobody stopped him there – and we promise to follow up. Sawahre/ContainerA line of some twelve cars, mostly taxis and one bus on the side going south. no line on the other side. We notice that the soldiers are sending back the first taxis to the end of the line – one by one, at least three taxis are turned back this way. We can’t figure out why this is, so we ask a soldier. “They did not stop at the stop sign”. Where is the stop sign? It is a flimsy little yellow plastic pyramid, not higher than our knees, on the right side of the road, some thirty meters from the checkpoint. How is anyone supposed to notice that? and so the drivers are taught a lesson in obedience and are sent back to the end of the line, for not stopping at the sign. Like little kids. Or rather, the way my dog trainer – who learned her skills in the army – insists that if my dog refused to stay where she was told to stay and starts walking towards me, the dog must be pulled backwards to that very same place where she was supposed to sit – “otherwise she will never learn obedience”.