Abu Dis, Vadi Nar -Container ,Silwan, Sheikh Saed, Wed 4.5.11, Morning
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Observers:
Idit Shlezinger, Anat Tueg (reporting)
May-4-2011
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Morning
6:45 Sheikh Saed
The usual scene at the checkpoint: few persons, labourers, and schoolchildren crossing first, no line.
A chat with the young men waiting for passengers confirms that the road to Sawaharra and from there to Jerusalem is worse than it was. Last week someone told us there's a clash of interests of owners of blue IDs and the owners of green ones.
7:30 Silwan
There's progress in the construction of side-walks and a parking lot down the road, apparently to enable the opening of two lanes with a small draining trough between them and no possibility of parking on the all too narrow road. We saw no digs such as those we watched during the last year. Has the work of laying down communication cables, sewage pipes, and all the rest along Wadi Hilwah been completed? In the meantime the road below the City of David is one-way in the direction of the Temple Mount, with occasional exceptions for security vehicles.
8:00 Wadi Nar
We saw the new concrete blocks reported by Michaela on the road from the old Kedar to the checkpoint, but there is still a narrow opening for our car to pass into the familiar "donkey country". All the residents of the surrounding area who are unable to travel by car on the road from Ma'aleh Adumim approaching the checkpoint to Kedar tie their donkeys by the roadside. We saw a cute baby
donkey next to its mother.
donkey next to its mother.When we arrived at the checkpoint we inquired about the new blockage and were told that Palestinian traffic would be redirected from the Wadi Nar checkpoint to the road leading from Kedar, but the soldiers didn't know how far. Our guess is that because there is now an excellent multi-laned road from Al-Azariah leading to the foothills where the checkpoint is situated, and from where the road to Bethlehem has also been much improved, and because at present the road from Al-Azariah is one-way, steep, and very dangerous, it has been decided to divert traffic flowing to Al-Azariah and from from there to the old route leading to the bedouin encampments. The road which converges in the wadi with the excellent paved road built by the Palestinian Authority with US Aid. It doesn't look as though the Palestinians will be allowed to use the apartheid road to Kedar.
Incidentally, the checkpoint was entirely empty. All five guards manning the c.p. allowed traffic to stream in both directions without any obstruction. We were told that between this c.p. and the one at the entrance to Bthlehem there are no other checkpoints. For the last year Jerusalem Arabs in possession of blue IDs are permitted to travel to Bethlehem unimpeded.
On the way back we entered Kedar and observed this large settlement spreading south-east. On the construction site where new homes were being built throughout the late-lamented "freeze", the cars of Palestinian labourers are parked. Two hilltops separate Kedar from Ma'aleh Adumim and, as is the custom in the land of settlements, a sister suburb begins to grow a stone's throw or two hilltops away, then the space in between is later filled with more homes. This appears to be the case here, and that was what Akiva Eldar reported a year ago. He said the settlers of Kedar were asking to be included in the local administration of the Ma'aleh Adumim zoning plans.
9:30 Az-Za'ayyem
By this hour the traffic jam to the tunnel leading into Jerusalem has dispersed.
10:00 Sheikh Jarrah
No demonstrators and the road is quiet. We picked up Ocha maps updated to June 2010.