SheikhSa'ad

1. Sheikh Sa'adAfter being informed by the lawyer Danny Seidemann we first visited Sheikh Sa'ad, a village of 5000 inhabitants which is since - so said the villagers - 10 days cut off from any motor traffic. Sheikh Sa'ed is - so told us the villagers - on one hand a village on its own and on the other hand part of Jabel Mukabar. The latter is part of Jerusalem, while Sheikh Sa'ed belongs to the occupied territories. But 70 % of the inhabitants have Israeli blue ID's. Both places are located on different hills. Between them is a road leading to Talpiot Mizrach and Jerusalem. Until 10 days ago any motor traffic could reach Sheikh Sa'ed from this road. This was the only access for cars to Sheik Sa'ed. Now it's completely blocked by a high kind of ramp from garbage. There are narrow tramp tracks on which one can pass it. With the first rain these are going to be a slippery, dangerous paths. No car, in particular no ambulance can enter the village. The villagers told us, that the municipal garbage workers had been forced by the border police to put their garbage on this kind of ramp and that yesterday a truck from Hadassah hospital had dumped leftovers from surgeries and other medical treatments on the ramp.The villagers seem to see the blockade of their village as a punishment for having once a suicide bomber among its inhabitants. We think this could be also part of the new "wall" around Jerusalem. We arived there at 6:30. During our stay there was no border police or army around. A lot of school children and adults came from the village. There were service cars and buses waiting for their further transportation.