Abu- DisSunday 2.4.06 PMObservers: Hagit Sh., Ilana H. (reporting)The gate next to the Cliff Hotel was closed and we were forbidden to use the road abutting on the wall (something we have done in the past). The officer told us that only local residents, settlers as well as Palestinians are allowed to use it.The “Lower Pishpash” was not guarded by military police, but crossing was difficult due to digging and construction. Two women, one elderly and one young, together with a girl sat on the sidewalk. We talked to them and learned they had come from Jericho for tests prior to the girl’s operation in Augusta Victoria Hospital. The climb to the upper Pishpash was utterly impossible for the eldely woman, and she was unable to cross at the lower Pishpash where there are taxis to Jericho. They had no permits. The young woman (the girl’s mother) told us she had been refused a permit to accompany her daughter (around 10 years old) to the test, and she had thus come illegaly. The taxis on the Jerusalem side refused to transport her without a permit. We took them to the upper Pishpash, and they told us of the stressful ordeals of the journey on this rainy day. The operation is scheduled for next week, and the mother fears she will not be granted a permit yet again. We gave her our phone number – perhaps we can help.The “Upper Pishpash”, in its present form intended to ease the crossing, was free to all passersby in both directions – there was no military police presence, aside from patrolling jeeps, and pedestrian high officers and their entourage, who took no interest in those crossing – almost idyllic.We crossed to the other side and wandered quite a lot around Al Ezariya, talking to people and watching the progress of work on the wall. In one spot we talked to the drivers of 4 buses from Hebron. They awaited some 200 children who were on a trip from Hebron to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The drivers did not cross with them. The children and their companions had not been allowed to cross in the morning because they too had no permits. They had to wait for an hour and a half in pouring rain, pleading with the soldiers to let them through. They were refused, and crossed only when the soldiers left.Around 5 p.m. we reached The Container where crossing proceeded smoothly, with almost no checks of either vehicles or the few workmen returning southward.