Morning

Arriving at the checkpoint we saw 5 detainees who were released after few minutes. We were told by soldiers that the “entrance” from the main road, which is fenced with big cement blocks is now opened on Fridays because of Ramadan. Around 7 am, while we were in the Palestinian side of Abu Dis, three soldiers came and announced a curfew. We were not allowed out from the passage near the mosque. On the main street, the soldiers forced a local vendor to build an improvised barricade with shelves and pieces of iron from the street. Then the soldiers told everyone who wanted to pass, to go through the field where the olive trees are. So we went. We had to walk through the field, climb a pile of stones and plastic boxes and jump over the wall. There were two crossing points, one of which had barbed wire we had to jump over. Of course old people, women and children had difficulties in passing through. After a few minutes, some soldiers came to the passing point and started to check the people. School children were let through without being checked. After 20 minutes, the soldiers stopped checking the olive trees passage and returned to the “checkpoint”. There the checking continued arbitrarily. We asked the soldiers why they do not allow the people to cross near the mosque, and make them pass through the olive trees, and they answered that it is forbidden to pass through the field, but that they (the Palestinians) should thank them for letting them pass at all. After a while the “checkpoint” got filled with about 30-40 Al Quds’s university students, who were not allowed to cross. The soldiers became tense; a female soldier started to shout at them, and finally, in order to disperse them they threw tear gas. Then we left.