Abu-Dis, Zeitim passage, The Contianer,Monday 11.9.2006 AM Observers: Edna P., Anat T (reporting) 06:45 Cliff hotel A soldier who was sent as reinforcement from a paramedic course welcomes us pleasantly. He does not know how many pass here during the morning. For him the checkpoint is relaxation. A children-transportation bus comes to the checkpoint, takes two kids and turns around. During the ten minutes that we stay there two cars pass without checkup. 07:00: The decorative wall We can see from the main road that there are two detainees at the checkpoint, and we walk there on foot. The detainees come from Hebron. One of them is a man around forty years of age and the other is a young man in his twenties. They have been detained for about an hour, and they have not yet begun filling up reports about them. They both are looking for work and have no permits and were caught at the gas station area – they did not stop as the BP soldiers shouted at them, and those had to run after them. The important thing here is honor – who has more honor, and whose honor was hurt. A few workers come with their constructor to work on the wall. The constructor has a blue ID but has not brought it. The BP soldier knows him well and admits it, but he claims that today he has a specific order not to let people without documents to pass through. The constructor gets angered, his honor is hurt, and he curses the soldier, and then the honor of the soldier is hurt – the atmosphere is heated until the constructor goes away and comes back ten minutes later. A BP officer who was summoned by the constructor arrives. We watch all the happenings with the paramedic cadet. He does not belong. Does not interfere. We talk with the soldiers, ask them to try and understand the other side – people whose aim is not to hurt their honor or to “make problems”, but to pass and survive. We hope that this may help later this day. The officer, in any case, starts filling up the reports about the detainees. we go on to the Pishpash and to Zeitim passage. 07:45 Zeitim Passage About fifteen men and women are waiting in one line. The female soldier who is in charge of the line leaves them in the default of red – closed, and only when we call her (she probably hears what happens beyond the fence, this is frightening) and wave our hands, she lets a few women who waited for green light pass. This happens more than once during our stay there. We call El. and ask him where is the humanitarian line, and why should there be one line if another line can be opened. When we checked it with him we were told that he is working on it. All the time that we stayed there they did not open another line, but the checkups are quickened. 08:30 The container on the direction coming from Jerusalem there is no line. At the entrance to Jerusalem there are about eight vans waiting, but they all go through without delay. 09:15 On the way out from Ezariye is a big delay and jam, at the center of which there is a BP Jeep. We stop. A disabled person’s car is blocking the road. As long as the person and his documents are being checked, all the others are waiting. We suggest they move aside. After a few minutes the traffic starts moving. Generally they stop vans, take documents and check them with the computer. They do it to five vans while we are there. When we talk with a taxi driver we find out that he is going to Ramalla and in Sawahara they already waited for half an hour for their documents to be checked. The BP soldier remarks that a terrorist could have mounted the car in the meanwhile, and they have to be checkt again. Driving to Ramalla, with the stops on the way, takes about two hours. About fifteen minutes later all the documents are returned and the van go on their way.We did not go to Sheikh Saed, did not have the time, but were very sorry. We wanted to see the reactions to the rejection of the inhabitants’ appeal to the Supreme Court, and the decision to leave the neighborhood outside the wall, cut off Jabel Mukaber.