Morning

Since Bethlehem is still under closure we were asked to move our watch to Abu Dis06:15 AM There was a large contingent of soldiers and policemen in East Jerusalem. Near Damascus Gate, there was a Checkpoint and along the entire sidewalk near the Wall huge amounts of garbage piled up to a height of about a meter. The road down to the Abu Dis Checkpoint looked eerie. No cars, no people, all shops and workshops were closed and we only met an occasional BP-jeep. At the exit of the ‘sleeve’ passageway near the mosque, there were two men-soldiers and their female commander. The trickle of pedestrians, all with blue ID-cards were checked an let through immediately. We found the passage along the mosque a little easier than the ‘climb’ further up of a couple of weeks ago. On the other side all the shutters were still closed and only one yellow transit was looking for passengers. We noticed some women and then a couple of men using the bypass over the field towards the North where a soldier was awaiting them. They were all let through.The entrance to the University was blocked with concrete slabs as was the car-entrance to the library, but the pedestrians’ gate was still open.