Abu Dis, Container (Wadi Nar), Ras Abu Sbitan (Olive Terminal), Sheikh Saed, Wed 6.5.09, Morning

7:00 Sheikh Sa'ed

Uncommonly sparse traffic flowing swiftly; no problems despite manual registration.  We tried to find out why, but the passers-by said it was an ordinary working day.  At the entrance to the checkpoint a large poster of the local planning committee announces the possibility of objections to the eastern ring road due to be built in the area.

7:30 The Pishpash

A certain amount of progress in the work towards moving the fence eastward could be seen.  A tractor was at work in the area.  The exact route is still unclear on the ground.  From what we gathered, there will be an inner security road (westward); between it and the fence there will be a row of houses whose back wall will be part of the fence -- bulging a few meters between the fence and the security road.

7:50 Anata

We paused to get  signatures from a person banned by security (Shabak) -- part of the documents for a suit to cancel the ban.

8:30 Wadi Nar

For the first time in a long while we saw people sitting and waiting in the shelter for detainees.  After a few minutes they were released.  They told us they had been waiting for two and a half hours.  We were unable to find out from them the reason for this, or whether they had been issued summonses to the Shabak.  After they left the soldiers claimed they had been detained for 10-15 minutes at most.

Unfortunately we were unable to verify either of the versions.

For the remainder of our time additional vehicles continued to be detained and released after a few minutes.

In one of theme the driver was asked to open the front, and the soldier checked all the parts thoroughly.

New Regulations at Zeitim Crossing

As far as we could tell the new regulations are not yet really enforced, and there are problems. It is not clear how they will affect waiting time at the checkpoint.