Morning

TOTAL CLOSURE06:10 AM Checkpoint 300 – two soldiers, no cars no pedestrians. Just after the corner into the Tunnel Road across from the bus stops, an improvised checkpoint had been put up. As we approached, ID’s were returned to about twenty Palestinians and an emptied out van was just being reloaded under the watchful eyes of a border policeman.06:30 AM El Khadr – completely empty. A transit approached and returned empty. We proceeded towards the ghost town and met one lonely young woman on her way out and a few minutes later another older woman bent under a heavy load. Near the Tunnel Road we met two men from Husan who wanted to get to Jerusalem via Abu Dis. The older showed us his papers attesting to the fact that he was the Head of a Girls’ School in East Jerusalem. On the way to Efrat, we saw an occasional jeep wherever a path led to a town or village – no Palestinians. On the way back apparently some Palestinian vehicles were let through at the checkpoint beyond the tunnel where there is a Jewish and a Palestinian lane. However, just before the end of the road before Gilo, another jeep stopped them, checked their papers and sent them back at a very awkward spot, disrupting traffic. We observed the procedure with a UN-van and were rudely told to move so as not to bother the soldiers in their work. 07:15 AM Back at Checkpoint 300 – still neither cars nor pedestrians.