Zeitim VPFriday 14.09 2007, AMwatching and reporting: Nitza A, Barbara SFirst Friday during Ramadan.On our way to Al-Ezariya we find the streets leading towards the Old City from the roundabout near the American Colony closed to vehicular traffic. In Wadi Joz near the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus we find a similar situation: all the entrances to streets leading in the direction of Al-Haram al-Shareef are blocked.As we approach Zeitim CP from the Palestinian side, we see seven large busses as well as several small ones and a large number of festively clad people standing on the street, hoping to be allowed into Jerusalem for prayers. Women are standing on the left, men on the right (later we hear a soldier ordering to maintain this order). Barricades in the form of metal fences have been set up on the street to keep people at a distance from the actual checkpoint.As so often in the past, announcements on the radio and facts of the ground differ considerably: according to radio broadcasts, this Friday the minimum age for entry into Jerusalem, with no need for a permit, is 45. Here at the checkpoint we are told that only those aged 60 and above are allowed to pass. Many of them have come from far away, but who the hell cares? However, at about 10:00 a policeman, in a conversation with N., hints that later the required minimum age will be reduced to 50. And truly, at about 10:15 an announcement to this effect is made, causing excitement and movement among the people. What a cynical strategy – in the end the 50 years olds feel “priviledged”, even though according to the “mediagenic” announcements they shouldn’t have been delayed in the first place.While the overall atmosphere is surprisingly non-aggressive and even humorous at times, many people complain about the misleading announcements and that they have been kept waiting since the very early morning. An older police officer, Y. A., nervously and aggressively shouts his commands over the megaphone, ordering young people to go home, other officers scream in bad Arabic: “yalla, yalla, move back!”. Around 10:45, for no clear reason, they begin to push people away further and further from the checkpoint. We witness no major physical violence, but there is a little bit of pushing and shoving, which doesn’t escalate.An older man says to me with bitterness, “One day we’ll be the ones doing this kind of thing to you!”.On the Israeli side of the checkpoint, where we arrive at about 12:15 things are very quiet, but shortly after our arrival a steady trickle of people, almost all women, comes out of the checkpoint. It turns out that at the last moment, just as it is about to be too late to get to the prayer on time, several 49 year old are most graciously allowed in.A phonecall to a contact person on the other side of the checkpoint confirms the information that the required age has been lowered to 49. Even the most stubborn among the younger people are leaving now, because it is clear that they will not reach the mosque on time.