including Al Ezariya

Abu Dis, Wadi Nar & Al-EzariyaTue. 7 December 2004 AMObservers: Yehudit S., Yael Y.-L. & Michaela R. (reporting)Guest: Binyamin, from Germany06:45 – 09:00 – a shift with no special incidents06:45 – Wadi Nar - cars coming from Bethlehem were checked at two points. The checks were very quick and hardly any lines in both directions. Pedestrians also crossed rapidly. No detainees.Just before 07:00, the guard changed, after which the checkpoint was closed for ten minutes. Crossing for pedestrians resumed quickly and most of them went through without being checked at all. When car checks resumed, lines had built up on both sides, chiefly from Bethlehem. Only one Border Police soldier was checking the cars en route to Bethlehem – slowly and thoroughly. He made sure that at any given moment, one or two vehicles would be detained. Papers were examined quickly, and each taxi was released within 5 to 10 minutes. The procedure was as follows: staffing the sentry-booth near the vehicle track to Bethlehem was one Border Police woman soldier. The male soldier who was checking slid the papers through a crack in the sentry-booth’s eastern side. She noted the details, and pushed them back thorough another crack. The objective of the check is recording details, but they were not entered into a computer or transmitted by phone. No buses went through today. We drove back by the old road.08:00 – The exit from Al-Ezariya – Four impounded cars, around 20 detained people. They had been waiting for an hour, we were told. Twelve vehicles in line. As we arrived, the line of cars was quickly checked and dispersed. Two IDs were given back within a few minutes. Five detainees were left. One of the Border Police soldiers was very friendly and almost apologised for the duration of the delay which didn’t depend on them. Here too, the checking procedure consisted of a soldier, seated in a jeep, who noted down the details. We didn’t see whether the details were then passed on to the General Security Service (GSS - Shabak).Our impression was that things were proceeding smoothly and we hurried to Abu Dis, assuming that the recording of the five final IDs would be quick. But when we drove past, we saw that the five last detainees hadn’t yet been released. Perhaps if we had continued standing there, they might have been released faster.Abu Dis – Crossing was unimpeded, life was flowing on. When we arrived there was no security forces presence, but the taxi drivers told us that they had left not long before. The taxi drivers also reported that a new commander (A.) had started working on Sunday – he had told them that by the end of the month all the fences would be completely closed, and crossing would only be possible via Az-Za'ayyem. We saw a Border Police jeep driving up from the direction of the tall building whose construction hasn’t yet been completed and is unoccupied. Formerly, they used one of its rooms to question people - we wondered whether the “questioning room” is again operational. In Wadi Nar and Al-Ezariya we inquired if new instructions are in place ahead of the elections – in both places the reply was that no preparations are being made for the elections.