Abu-Dis and vicinity, Sunday PM, 29.1.06 Observers: Ilana H., Chagit S. (reporting) Abu dis 14:15 – 15:45 The separation wall south of the hotel is still being worked on. Apparently today they were busy adding barbed wire to the top. In the field next to the lower house of Kidmat Zion there are also construction works taking place. Perhaps they are erecting an additional building, an expansion of the settlement?The building of the new part of the wall, behind the houses on the road going up to the Pishpash, continues. At various points on this road, young men climb a fence or a gate on their way to or from Jerusalem. Next to the Pishpash we encounter the familiar sight of men and women, children and babies, climbing over the stones and the puddles, squeezing to the side of the wall and passing east or west. 4 BP (3 men handling their affairs only in Russian, and one female) observe the comings and goings and check documents at random. Most of those checked have blue IDs, but there were others as well having permits and those without permits were sent back east to the wall. Passing through the monastery was no problem and people came and went there unchecked.There were 4 detainees when we arrived. According to the soldiers, two of them were suspects in drug dealings and will be taken to the police for interrogation when the jeep arrives. The police have no funds and not enough vehicles, therefore the delay. The commander, Iliya z. refuses to tell us to which police station they will be taken. He is bothered by our question, why is that of any interest to us. And all in all we are in his way, he forbids our speaking to his detainees and to his soldiers. The other two detainees had been caught down the road on their way back to Abu- Dis. One of them was on his way to Hebron. Both do not have permits to be in Jerusalem. Their IDs were taken by whoever caught them and sent them to wait at the Pishpash, and they have not been returned as yet. Only after an hour did we realize that for two hours the BP-men had not been able to locate the soldier who had taken the documents and to see to their return. In the end, upon our return from the Container, we found that the two had been released.Amitai L., driving a civilian car, arrived. We spoke with him and he explained that the passageways in Abu-Dis, at the Pishpash and at the monastery, are open and shut alternately so as to get the residents used to the new regulations regarding the new CP being constructed in A-Zayim. A procedure that seems to me in the well known spirit of pure arbitrariness. Until all the residents will all be aware of the new regulations they will be in for a surprise: it is possible or not possible to go through. The Container 16:00 We arrived at the Container in a transit that we took at the Bawabe. There are long lines in both directions and for quite a while no one is let through. The changing of the guards ended and soon the lines of vehicles were dissipated without any checking. Tens of workers arrive from Maale Adummim and go through the CP rapidly, not through the turnstiles and without being checked.