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including Anata

Place: Jerusalem
Observers: Nurit L.,Vivi Z,Nurit A,Noga k,Chava H
Aug-27-2005
| Morning

Qalandiya, Anata, Sat. 27.08.05 a.m.Observers; Nurit L., Vivi Z, Nurit A, Noga k, Chava H (reporting) two guests from the USQalandiya: While we were there for an hour, we tried, like everyone else to understand where the new wall will go and where the pedestrians will cross. The Jewish head of the checkpoint, the one responsible for our security requested us to stand far away, for us to move, from here there and the other place. However, to his credit, he did try to explain to us about the course of the wall and sketched on his hand the course of the wall which strangles Jerusalem. There was no pressure of people crossing and no detainees, so we continued to Anata.Anata: About a half hour before the entrance to the camp, there was a hill of dust upon which 15 people were sitting. We got down from the minibus, and were told that no one was allowed into Anata. No one seemed to know if there was a closure or not, and that was of no interest because Anata has a special standing. As a matter of principle, it is possible to go into Anata, but because it is continguous to the Shuafat refugee camp, it is forbidden to leave the camp via the Shuafat refugee camp because from there it is possible to get into Jerusalem. Therefore, the problem was easily solved – it was forbidden to enter at all. All those people who were waiting on the Tel passed by on their way to the Container checkpoint and were also checked there but as was said, Anata has a special standing and there was no entrance. There is also a bi-pass dirt road from which it is possible to enter, but unfortunately, the soldiers know about it and already caught several boys there and they were now being detained and the father of one of them was sitting in the sun and waiting. “So what are you waiting for”, we asked. They answered that they were waiting for the soldiers to leave. We started making telephone calls, and on Shabbat, that is a depressing matter. Either they don’t answer or they say, “This is not connected to me”. When we asked, “so to whom is it connected “, the person on the line signed and answered “I don’t know. Call the police”, and we did indeed call everyone that we could think of and while we were calling, all of the people who were sitting suddenly stood up and started running because the checkpoint was opened and all the detainees were released. The soldiers got on their jeep and went off to someplace else. The security of Israel was saved and also the livelihood of those patiently waiting. We were left standing with telephones in hand.In Anata itself, we saw the old stone barricades – those that were just a meter and a half high, which were in the courtyard of a school. Perhaps they are trying to get the children used to these so that when they grow up, it won’t be difficult for them to live between these walls and perhaps they are in the schoolyard because they constitute garbage that the army doesn’t need. But our driver, a resident of Anata fears that they are planning to run the auxiliary wall through the schoolyard. In the valley under the school, they are paving the wall on which, if there is no God, the wall will run.

  • Jerusalem

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    • The places in East Jerusalem which are visited routinely by MachsomWatch women are Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah. During the month of Ramadan, also the Old City and its environs are monitored.

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