From 6:30 till 9:00 AM

Hundreds of workers were walking towards the city as we passed Tantur on our way to CP 300. The road looked filthy and many, many more Palestinians were sitting on the sidewalk amidst the garbage awaiting their transportation. It was fairly empty across from the entrance to the Rachel Checkpoint, but after we had parked on the filthy road it became clear why. A Palestinian pointed out to us that policemen in civilian clothing come by and simply take a picture of the car and then send a ticket of 250 NIS to the owner of the car, without his knowledge. Indeed there are red and white markings along the sidewalk, so we turned around and drove into the fairly empty official parking lot. As we walked back, again stepping on empty cups and other trash we saw that the large gate for cars is open, but the smaller ones for pedestrians on the sidewalk are locked, necessitating us to get on the road to continue walking on the garbage – it has never been as bad. In the midst of it three Palestinians we trying to catch some sleep before their employer would arrive. I am afraid we woke them up. Meanwhile the flow of workers had already diminished a little and we were told that we should have arrived half an hour earlier. At the entrance to the CP we saw a civilian guard and two members of the ‘Blue and White Human Rights’, but there was no longer any pushing and shoving, so we left.

Opposite Har Homa the checkpoint has been abandoned although some concrete blocks remain and can be moved at will. Cars entered and exited. We looked at the closures of the small roads of Um Tuba towards the Lieberman R’d that are still in place, so presumably there still is only one entrance/exit that can be used. We continued to the Mazmoriya CP and asked the Military Police soldier whether we could enter Nuaman. He said OK, but when we got to the barrier it remained closed. We returned to the CP and asked him again and he told us he would consult with the Border Police and then said: Are you even Jewish? Why do you want to go? We told him that we had been in the past. An Arab was sweeping the surroundings of the CP which looked spic and span, no cigarette butt on the road. The gate opened and we went inside. We saw two cars with yellow license plates and one elderly man who was not eager to talk to us. The fields have been ploughed and the earth looked good. The village looked the image of serenity; Har Homa is getting much closer and looks enormous – a true looming fortress. We spotted some autumn crocuses before we turned around. The soldiers wondered why we were back so soon.

Instead of waiting in the long queue of cars on their way to town, unable to exit onto Hebron Road we turned right into Sur Baher and drove through the entire village. The roads were clean, but garbage was piled up meters high on top of the frog containers; it wasn’t windy and we saw no ravens or cats to scatter the trash around. Hopefully it will all be collected in the non-too distant futre. We didn’t see any soldiers or border police until we exited on the other side where some soldiers were hanging around joking amongst each other next to some concrete blocks. But no car was stopped in either direction and we continued towards East-Talpiyot (Armon Hanatziv). The entrance to Jebel Mukabr on Barazani Street is still blocked by concrete blocks, an elderly lady walked past them before she got into a car that was awaiting her on the other side. No soldiers.

We entered Abu Tor via Naomi Street and saw no closure and drove through the entire neighborhood until we took the steep White Angel Street down to the new Jewish enclave in Abu Tor opposite Mount Zion. We saw no guards or soldiers, but at the entrance to the complex is a huge metal door which presumably is electronically controlled.