Morning

A morning that began like a "routine" Abu Dis morning, ended, for no apparent reason, in shock grenades and tear gas:There was peaceful passage of mainly women and children north of the wall, hardly being checked by the few border policemen who were standing, as usual, between the petrol station and the wall. Suddenly more border policemen arrived and ordered the women and children to go back and pass through the mosque. A bit later a jeep (22-539) arrived with 3 bp, one of whom was a captain ordered the others to remove the dirt heaps the next day and cover all the make-shift passages with concrete blocks. Next, the passage next to the mosque was closed, people were not allowed to pass, an armed border policeman climbed on the wall and the officer stood there holding a tear gas grenade in his hand. There was no demonstration and no violence on the Palestinian side. We were standing in the Islamic college when a shock grenade was thrown at the small crowd beyond the wall. As a response, a stone was thrown from the Abu Dis side in the direction of the border police which almost hit one of us. 2 more shock grenades were thrown and then also 2 tear gas grenades. What happened is an example of how the authorities try to enforce their decision that this short bit of "border" should be hermetically closed. This demonstration of force takes between half an hour and an hour and a half and then life goes back to "normal".