Sheikh Saed, Abu-Dis, The ContainerFriday 11.08.2006, AM (08:40-12:30) Observing and reporting: Mikhal Z, Claire O, Rita M.Sheikh Saed – About ten young soldiers – border police and two army soldiers at the entrance. They tell us there is a closure, (still), and some of the young men are very rude, but at least this week we did not hear any stun grenades at the time we were there. The checkpoint commander, A., talkative and paternalistic as ever, is inside the village, past the grocery store – and holds court there: people come to him with their papers and plead to be allowed to cross into Israel and he is the one who decides who passes and who stays. We ask if the closure means no humanitarian cases are allowed to cross, and he asks us to translate a medical statement in English and then agrees to let the father of a severely burnt girl pass for treatment: “see, you just helped a humanitarian case”. It is soon followed by a father and a child with a bandaged eye. But an old man, who presents papers stating he needs to get treatment for cancer, is not allowed to pass. “I know you” A. says, “you are taking advantage of your medical situation, in order to go to the el Aksa mosque” (A., who speaks rather fluent Arabic, asks the Palestinians standing around him what is the Arabic word for “taking advantage”). Indeed, the clinic where the old man must report is open on Fridays, as is written on the card he shows us. We ask A. why the man can’t be allowed to do both – go to the clinic and go to pray. But A., who otherwise has the ability to limit confrontations with the local population, here does not bend the rules. Humanitarian cases yes, going to the mosque no. “Five minutes after the prayer starts, I will let him through”, he tells us, as the old man, in resignation, sits on the steps of one of the houses, and waits. A. prides himself on being able to distinguish what is humanitarian or not … “sometimes they beat their kids till they cry, and bring them to the checkpoint, crying, to pretend they are ill” He tells of letting a woman in labor pass, who gave birth an hour after she passed the checkpoint. Then he yells out after a man – with the loudspeaker he holds in his hands – where are you going? The man says he is going to the store. A. lets him walk the additional ten meters only after he is assured the man is a resident of Sheikh Saed and not someone who came to the village in order to cross into Israel. Residents again tell us about the impossible situation in the separation of Jabel Mukaber, where all their services are located. Including their cemetery. A man tells us that when his uncle died, they had to wait several days to get a permit to allow the body to cross and be buried in Jabel Mukaber, in the meantime, it started to smell. Abu-Dis – We see two BP who are checking the blue IDs of two teenage boys – they say the boys looked suspicious to them, but let them go as soon as they are cleared of suspicion.We meet Shahar Yitzhaki, who replaces Eli Gabai.. Shahar gives us his phone number. He tells us about a firebomb that was allegedly thrown at the pishpash last week, and about an incident at Sawahre CP, where a man dressed up as a woman with a dolls as a baby, pulled out a gun, and wounded two soldiers. At the opening between the concrete blocks – only local residents on the list of petitioners to the High Court are let through. Shahar is not at all sure that the case is closed to the benefit of the appellants and that the wall will indeed be moved back, as the residents told us last week. All those with blue IDs and permits are told to go to the Zeitim CP , including those without permit who want to argue their case: the soldiers say they have the tools to do the checks – computers, as well as higher officers who can use their judgment of each individual case. But we know that on Fridays there is not a soul to be seen at the checkpoint, and that there is no possible way to convince any officers to use their judgment. Detainees: two men and two women, their IDs have been taken. They ask us to help, but we can’t do much.Shahar says he knows one of the women, who he claims has a criminal background. He says there is no way this woman, who has a bandage on her foot, could have jumped over a two meter wall, if her foot had really been broken. The other woman tells us she wants to leave the country and has applied for a visa to Italy, where her brother lives, but is not allowed into Israel to get to the consulate, in order to pick up her visa. After a while the four are taken further down the hill, to side driveway that leads to a tall building, where in the past we have witnessed makeshift cross examinations. We are afraid that this is what is happening again, but the four are pulled to the side of the driveway, where there is a surface on which to write and forms are filled out for each of them. The Container – Cars are not moving when we arrive, and there is very long line coming from Bethlehem, of around twenty vehicles. Checking is thorough, trunks are opened. But then, suddenly, things begin to move faster and cars are no longer checked. First one direction is let through, and when all cars have gone through, and in the meantime more have gathered at the other line, then that side is let through. At least two taxis are standing on the side – probably from before we came while their IDs are checked, but these too are returned before we leave.