Morning

We arrived at the checkpoint at 6:15 AM: no soldiers, no jeeps and no rain.Mainly men on their way to work used all possible passages. We realized that the concrete slabs had been moved even further up and the only ‘official’ passage is now through the university. Our friend said that she had heard that at Checkpoint 300 some men were left naked in the rain for three hours. She also reported that the observation decks are occasionally used by the Border Police to beat up Palestinians, but they were not manned now. On the contrary a youngish fellow went up and waved to us from inside. She was given an article which appeared in the press some time ago about the French lycee which her son attends.At 6:45 the soldiers arrived, also some jeeps. The rains started just when most children started coming through. Some Palestinians still managed to sneak behind the gas station via the stairs. All others were told to return and walk around from all ‘forbidden’ under- and overpasses despite the fact that it was raining hard and the detour was pretty long. Real harassment. A woman with fluent Hebrew, in possession of a blue ID card who explained that she was in a hurry was sent back and around. The soldier had to show us his power while ‘teaching her a lesson’.At the passage through the university most (though not all) people had to show their ID’s and permits. A limping man, obviously without papers, passed freely. Two women without permits were let through. Most green and orange ID-numbers were written down and very arbitrarily even some blue ones. The soldier acted politely, said “please” and asked whether I was happy with his behavior.On the other side there were many vans and taxis, also the yellow ones withPalestinian numberplates. It is now common practice to ‘punish’ the driver if one of his passengers has no valid documents. He is the one who gets a fine and is not allowed to drive his car for thirty days. The ‘delinquent’ Palestinian without papers is handed over to the blue police.On the way back up we marveled again at the major construction works - withbrick sidewalks - carried out by the Municipality on the Road to Jericho (sic).