Afternoon

As we arrived, 14 detainees were being moved from near the checkpoint to the field behind the wall. The time was 3:15. There was enormous movement of both pedestrians and transits and cars. The previous makeshift passageway over the wall and through the mosque is now behind a huge barricade. Passage is now via the original entryway, but in order to get there, one must pass through a "sleeve" guarded by two border policemen. We crossed over to the other side where a transit driver told us a number of horror stories including the following: there is a curfew from 6:00 until 7:30 to prevent workers from getting to their jobs; school children were detained and not allowed to get through on their way to school; gas cannisters were thrown at the machsome near A- Zaim. At about 4:30, the border policemen suddenly announced that there was a curfew, but people with blue id's continued to pass through in both directions, and many more with orange and green managed to get through in the midst of all the confusion. Some unlikely ones got caught and were made to join the other detainees. At about that time, the barricades were moved to allow two ambulances to get through to the other side. We were not able to determine whether they were Israeli or Palestinian ambulances, nor was anyone able to tell us why they were called. When we left at 5:00 p.m., there were still about 25 detainees -- the remainder of those whom we found there at 3:15 plus new additions. When the border policemen processed the detainees, the movement was pretty quick. But it appeared to us that nothing was done until pretty close to 4:30 with the result that many would still be there hours later.The border policemen were proper enough and some gave the impression of really disliking what they were doing. At the same time, they seems convinced that what they were doing was protecting the rest of us from potential "piguim".