Abu Dis and Sawahre Checkpoints; Separation WallMachsomWatchers: A.G., Ch.A., I.D., N.G.-B.Also: C.B. of the Gilo Community TV We met at the Liberty Bell Parking Lot in Jerusalem, where a bus-load of English-speakers was just leaving to help with the olive-harvest.06:30 AM: A group of about sixty Palestinians had been chased and caught without papers and were marched up the road towards the hotel. Meanwhile we noted that the wall at the bottom had been moved five meters eastward (tiny additional annexation). Large holes had been excavated along the side of the street, the barbed wire had been removed from the top of the concrete slabs and some of the rubble moved to the side. It looked as if this was in preparation for the tall wall to be erected.Meanwhile we watched in amazement the arrival in convoy of the 8-meter tall parts of the wall which were transported on huge semi-trailers belonging to an Ashdod-company bringing in the huge pieces of concrete from a plant in Yeruham, obstructing all traffic, causing noise and air-pollution. Trying to get out of their way we moved into the yard of Notre Dame des Douleurs and kept the gate open for some Palestinians who had jumped over the fence under the direction of two men on the roof of the University who signaled when the coast was clear. The BP-men didn’t allow us to talk to the men they held and told us they would be released within an hour. We proceeded behind the hotel to watch a large plot of land towards the East (next to the “Parliament” where the tall concrete slabs were unloaded by huge cranes and kept in neat rows flat on the ground. One side had bright red markers, which will be clearly visible from above as if the wall without the paint could not be noticed from the air. A great number of security guards were present as well as three photographers from Getty Pictures. We returned to the other side of the hotel and started pulling our telephone out when five men were called to come forward and set apart. One of the soldiers brought us a copied permit of a man, who had left it with them and then disappeared. He asked us whether we wanted it, but was told to hand it in to his commander. All other men were released, it took some time, since they were called out one by one and the crowd was large. The five who had been kept apart were then marched down the street and will be taken for further investigation. They had tried unsuccessfully before and were therefore now on the blacklist.We crossed the wall at the easy spot next to the yellow cross where now a rope hangs down for more convenient climbing and boarded a transit to the container. Za’id (of the red van) immediately sent our driver away and proclaimed that he would take us back. The drivers told us that between five and seven in the morning no one had been allowed through and a huge queue of vehicles had been waiting at both sides of the checkpoint. Then, however, three semi-trailers (loaded with the 8-meter concrete slabs, as mentioned above) had approached from the direction of Keidar on their way to be unloaded in Abu Dis next to those we had seen before. In order to clear the road for them to proceed more easily every person and car was let through immediately and when we arrived only one yellow cab had been waiting for more than an hour for the papers of its passengers to be checked.A man from Hebron was late for a workshop he has to conduct in Ramallah on accessibility to education for the handicapped. He told us he had lectured the soldiers once on the feeling of a house-cat being denied freedom and access to food and shelter and that their reaction had been that they had orders from above.The BP-men and one blue-uniformed policeman were extremely unfriendly and uncooperative (we were disturbing them), so we pulled out our telephone. The humanitarian desk of the army needed more info and when we stepped forward to inquire the cab and its passengers were released. One of the security guards of the semi-trailers stopped to talk to us. He spends the nights near the equipment and told us the population hates them. When asked whether he understood their feelings, he replied in the affirmative, but claimed that he has to make a living. There was nothing more to do for us since the only concern of the soldiers appeared to be how to accommodate the passage of the semi-trailers.Za’id showed us his house and told us that his wife (with a blue ID) who is from Jabel Mukaber is due to have their 4th child in February will have the baby in the Mukassed Hospital. He, however, is a little apprehensive to visit her there. He has been jailed for 45 days and if caught within the next three years in Israel faces three years imprisonment. He wants a blue ID on the basis of family unification, but has not much hope. He asked us whether we would be able to get him a job abroad. He said that near the pish-pash [pedestrians’ gated passage] the wall is already being built.We climbed back to the West and took the car up the road, but the pish-pash looked just like before. No presence of BP but lots of climbers in both directions were observed.One of the drivers told us that beyond Beit Fadjeh we can see the wall. Next to Beit Fadjeh a concrete slab has been put up in the middle of the road. The idle BP-men and one girl next to their jeep told us that the wall can be observed from further up. Indeed, when taking the road up to A-Tur, after about fifty yards there is a small alley to the right which we entered and about thirty yards down a VERY GOOD (and depressing) view of part of the wall can be seen, separating A-tur from El-Azzariyah. On the way back we noted once more the road that has been constructed through the Moslem Cemetery under the Golden Gate and the new Jewish neighborhood built under Abu Tor.