Sheikh Saed,Abu-Dis, Zeitim CPFriday, 04.08.2006, AM (08:40-12:30)observing and reporting: Mikhal Z, Rita M, Claire O. Sheikh Saed – stun grenades. Even at Sheikh Saed the Palestinians have already learned: no passage is allowed.People in despair: there is no work.A chattering and paternalistic officer Just as we arrive a stun grenade explodes. A soldier shouts “erjah” and runs after a taxi. A conversation with the checkpoint commander. He knows exactly why the grenade was thrown: “a crowd was gathering”. It became clear afterwards, that it was a crowd of four people, who were talking to each other. The commander does not stop talking and opens in a declaration in an anthropological vein. In answer to our question what are the orders that day, he reads us his SMS message: Here it is, black on green: “Total closure from July 31 till august 5th. Today men up to the age of 40 can pass, no age limit to women. This applies only to those who have blue IDs. Of course, also with special permits”. 3 jeeps. Next to the road, at the entrance of the village, stands a new fortified cabin (for interrogations?). We walk in the village, speaking to the people. There is no work. A young man who used to work in Jerusalem has been unemployed for months already. He does not have a blue ID, he is forbidden from getting near the checkpoint and he seems in despair. We get to the “donkey path” and see a taxi that arrives from Sawahre, and lets off a family that starts to climb the steep path, loaded with packages. The family head lets out, when he arrives at his home: “Now we need an airplane here. Soon they will put out the red carpet for us!”Elderly women who arrived from Bethlehem and wanted to visit the mosque in the Old City, pleaded with us to help them pass. We try to speak to the heart of the commander, but he holds on to the orders “Nobody is let through, there is a closure.” Here and there a stun grenade is thrown, in order to “disperse the crowds” despite the fact that there are relatively few people. Not too long ago, hundreds of Palestinians would try to cross here, the only place where a ‘terminal’ had not been built, but today there are few people: they already learned that here too there is no crossing. In the near future the wall will be built and will shut off the residents of Sheikh Saed from those of Jebel Mukaber, where many of their family members live, and from where they receive most of their services and it is not clear at all where they will turn to, when they will be closed off. The pause in the building of the wall, by a decree of the High Court, has now come to an end with the appeal of the State against the previous decision.Abu-Dis – Al Ezariya – The former gate/ the lower gate: We attempt to walk along the “the decorative wall” where a ‘security road’ runs between the wall and the houses. The soldiers try to drive us away, yet they do answer our questions and explain that this wall will connect to the wall that is being built behind the monastery. One the other side of the wall is the road for the Palestinians. It is presently blocked, but is supposed to be opened when the building is finished. At the hotel: The road is blocked by a closed gate to which a ‘no entry’ sign has been added. There are almost no window panes left in the hotel.Opening to cross into Al Ezariya: (the old pishpash): 10 elderly women and a few men are waiting on the eastern side of the wall. 3 border police staff the crossing. The Palestinians have unending patience, but the border police no longer leave the gate as they once did, and at five o’clock a new shift will arrive.One of the women turns to us, and shows us an appointment at the UNRA offices, in order to get an insulin shot. She is diabetic and her appointment is for August 1st, but up to now they have not let her get across. A jeep arrives, and we turn to the commander, show him the letter with her appointment and ask that he allow her to receive the indispensable treatment. In the end, he agrees. A very old woman, bent over and wrinkled, she looks a hundred years old, pleads to cross too, in order to pray just once at the mosque, but the dosage of mercy is finished: “If I let her cross, I will have to let all those elderly women over there pass too.”“So perhaps you could really let all of them cross”“NO. there are orders. there is a closure”. An encouraging piece of news, despite it all: the owner of the small coffee shop tells us that the group of local residents won their appeal at the High Court, and soon the wall will be moved to the east, so that his house and his coffee shop will be on the Israeli side of the wall. Zeitim CP – There is hardly a soul to be seen. An acquaintance of ours arrives with his car and tells us that there are people crossing only in the morning. The rest of the day the place is deserted. He says that they only let people pass who have to go to the hospital. On the other hand, workers who have work permits, are not allowed through. At Ras-el-Amud the road is blocked. A woman police officer stops us from driving towards the Old City and sends us to a left turn into Ras El Amud and Silwan. She is very harsh and aggressive. She claims that already for the past four weeks there is no passage here (during prayer time). We get a little lost and people tell us that there is no passage to Jerusalem from the alternative roads where she sent us anyway, and so we return to the same place: the woman police officer has disappeared and the male officer who replaced her, does let us through. As we approach the Old City, we see many soldiers who are checking Palestinians on their way to prayer.