Abu Dis, Container (Wadi Nar), Sheikh Saed, Mon 4.5.09, Afternoon
From 2:30 till 5:30 PM
Sheikh Saed
Sheikh Saed looked even more desolate in the hot sandstorm. We crossed inside without seeing a soldier (he was checking only outgoing pedestrians). We asked a couple of people where the new settlement (as reported in Haaretz) was going to be built, but no one seemed to know.
There is a large new notice in Arabic on the fence pertaining to planning and building permits; no one seemed interested in reading it (it is was long). We didn’t even have to show our Id’s when going down and just greeted the soldier.
The buses now have to unload their passengers more than a hundred yards to the North away from the CP, so people with bags and babies will have to walk even further.
After intensive lookouts we finally did discover where the new settlement is going to be built – across from the second turn-off from the Road of the Americas down in the Wadi is a fenced-in area ready for construction, indeed smack in the middle of the Palestinian population. The settlement in Ras El-Amud across from the deserted Police Station is growing apace.
The PishPas in Abu Dis
The place was deserted, as was the Eastern side of the Olive Terminal.
Wadi Nar
The CP above Wadi Nar has moved below to where the container used to be. As we arrived A. the chatty commander, begged us to ask whatever we needed to know and he would answer all our questions, as long as we didn’t interfere with his work. He talked at length about the importance of the work at the CP while we watched as youngsters were taken out of yellow cabs and after a wait of about half an hour, given white slips – for and interview with the ‘captain’.
Most cars were let through unhindered and there were no long lines.