Ras Abu Sbitan (Olive Terminal), Sheikh Saed, Silwan, Mon 12.8.13, Morning
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Our tour begins in search of the building site for settlers in Jabel Mukhaber on the edge of East Talpiot -- the site inaugurated yesterday with much fanfare from the media. We couldn't find it -- not a trace of it as a continuation of the Nof Zion settlement, nor on the eastern part the hill separating the two communities.
7:00 Sheikh Saed Life returns to normal after Ramadan; people go to work, children still on summer vacation. The soldiers are aware of our permit to climb beyond the checkpoint and return that way. The transportation people are indifferent to our inquiries about ongoing work beyond the road. It seems to us that, despite the estimates of the Ba-Makom lobby, work includes infrastructure for the ring road and the intersection to be built there. (We will convey this information to them, since they say there's no permit to build this road yet, opposition hearings continue, and therefore the legality of the work is in doubt.) Silwan No checkpoints. Elad's construction and archaelogical site in the parking lot opposite City of David is blocked, and activity there is not visible. Perhaps they've already begun building the vast centre planned for this place? Olive Terminal |
It gives us pleasure to watch the scene, even though the spectacle is temporary, it all looks so normal and right. Also families, with their young and their elderly, loaded with picnic hampers, on their way to the beaches in Jaffa and Tel-Aviv.
Traffic at the checkpoint is managed efficiently and even the soldier we remember from previous occasions as aloof and hostile, assists with the crossing of a baby
carriage, piled with goods, through the humanitarian gate, under the gaze of the checkpoint commander and other police and border-police officers of rank. May such days thrive and multiply.
But on the other hand: work to stretch and connect the wall to the checkpoint's gate continues below the parking lot. A border-police jeep invigilates, to prevent the passage of people there.