Morning

E-Ram: routine, slowish movement. Many pedestrians not checked. checks cursory except for ambulance, delayed for verification of passengers' papers (they were going to Mukassed for an operation). One woman, slightly unablanced, arrested.Sunny 2000 (now the Arab Coffee House) some 38 people, including 5-6 women, detained for checking. Border Police civil, distressed but not helpful. Returned after shift at 8.45 and the detainees were still there, in the rain. Hotline unable to assist without contact number for at least one detainee (we need to check this with the Moked). Border Police wouldn't agree to let us talk directly to detainees. Call to the DCO commander politely useless. Woman, encouraged by our presence, began to crowd and pester policemen: we decided to leave since we could not help and were making matters worse.Qalandya: no pile up of pedestrians. Cars moving slowly southward. Women soldiers at northern end, reasonably polite and swift moving traffic.Jab'a: a mobile checkpoint dispersed as we arrived . We took a tour of Jab'a with our friend. Some background: last week the army closed all the southern exits/entrances to Jaba'a and forced residents to use the "main entrance" which has not been used since 1970 and which villagers refused to use. Following protests via the hotline, Amir Safadi re-opened the southern entrances. The so-called main entrance is a dirt track and also the village garbage dump, including carcases of several very dead sheep. The track, which is not fully accessible by vehicle (we stopped halfway), leads into the hills and not to any real road. Its very clear why the villagers refuse to use this "road": they simply can't. The newly opened entrance/exit to Jab'a is a break in the barbed wire, also over an unpaved path. According to Arafat, ambulances stop on the road and the sick, dying and pregnant must be carried, dragged or driven over the bumpy stones to reach it. Jaba'a is a village of some 4,000 souls with no record of violence or activism.