Abu Dis Friday 3.12.2004Rita M, Varda R, Orit Y, Avital B. (reporting) 9:35 Container/Sawahre: When we arrived some 5 to 6 cars were standing on each side, they were examined rather thoroughly by the soldiers, but were not detained. Two detainees were standing under the roof and were released a short time after we arrived. We met a family from the Jordan valley (Bik’a) that wanted to travel to Bethlechem in their private car, but the soldiers refused to let them through because they did not have a permit for the car. During our stay, one passenger from a taxi was detained for ten minutes. We noticed that a soldier whistled to indicate to the pedestrians to move towards the checkpoint.10:30 at the Pishpash: A part of the convent wall has been broken allowing people to bypass the new 8-meter high concrete wall. At that opening two BP soldiers were standing, checking IDs – letting only those with blue IDs or with permits to pass. The soldier repeated, to those without permits, like a mantra: “This is not a checkpoint. If you want to cross, you should go to Az-Za'ayyem, to Sawahre, to Bethlechem, there are many checkpoints, this is not a checkpoint.” We wanted to ask him not to send people for nothing to places where they would not be able to cross anyway, but we did not succeed. At the same time that this checking was going on, people were climbing over the wall to the yards of the adjacent houses – right in front of the soldiers’ eyes. When we arrived at the opening in the wall, we were told by a group of American students visiting the wall with the Committee against the Destruction of Houses, that on the other side there was a pregnant woman that the soldiers had refused entry because she did not have a permit. We tried to locate her, but at first we did not see any pregnant women. Later, a man and a woman arrived, when a large group had gathered already at the broken wall, waiting to be checked. The man asked to be let through with his wife, in order to go to El Mukassad Hospital because she was pregnant and not feeling well. The soldier refused even to listen. As the woman who was supported her husband fainted, and collapsed, the soldier still would not let them through. We interfered and asked if they do not let humanitarian cases through and the soldier answered that they should go to Az-Za'ayyem. At the same time, we called Gabai – the commander of the area – (who replaces Mike?) – and asked him to interfere. Gabai said that his second-in-command will call us, and in the meantime we heard that he called the soldiers on their phones. Before the second-in-command returned to us, the soldiers had already called an Israeli ambulance. We overheard the soldier comment that he ordered an ambulance so that the medics would establish if the woman was really about to give birth, or if she was only putting on a show – in which case she would have to pay a fine. The ambulance took a very long time to come – (it must be accompanied by a border police jeep in order to come to Abu Dis) – and the woman was waiting in a car, as the soldier had refused to let her wait in the convent’s garden. The husband was worried about his wife’s condition and feared that the Israeli ambulance would take her to Hadassah, and so called a Palestinian ambulance that arrived in a very short while. When the Israeli ambulance finally arrived, the woman was already inside the Palestinian ambulance and they decided to stay there and not to move to the Israeli ambulance, even though it would have saved them going through the Az-Za'ayyem checkpoint. (We wonder also about the cost of the Israeli Magen David ambulance as opposed to the Palestinian ambulance. In any case, the couple was planning to walk across the checkpoint – some 50 meters – to get a taxi to El Mukassed Hospital – they would have been there long before any of the ambulances arrived, had the soldiers let them through to begin with.)The most disturbing issue here was the lack of trust and of responsibility on the part of the soldiers. The soldier at the wall said: “I do not take responsibility to let her go through and then she will give birth on the way” – as if by his refusal to let the pregnant woman through, he relinquishes responsibility for the lives of the mother and her baby. During the entire incident the great suspicion of the soldiers was that the woman was putting on an act at their expense, “pulling their legs”, and they refused to relate to her medical condition.