Morning

There was a steady flow of people making their way through the opening by the field... among them women with heavy parcels with goods\vegetables for sale. Some of them were waiting by the taxi stand but no taxi driver was willing to take them. One taxi driver told us he is driving someone else's taxi van as his (or the one he was driving before) was confiscated for 30 days with the fine of 5,000 NIS for the 'crime' of taking people from the territories. There were three soldiers (BP) in the area most of the time. They chased the women back towards the wall. The women insisted on staying by the wall and waiting for an opportunity to try their luck again while the soldiers tried again to force them to go back.The soldiers said that they told the women they could pass as they were all above 50 years old (which seemed to be the order of the day for people with green\orange I.D.) but they could'nt take their parcels with them as they are not allowed to bring goods from the territories for sale. By the mosque the chairs which were there sometime ago were removed On the other side (Abu Dis) also muddy and busy we were talking with some taxi drivers as we saw the soldiers (same) shouting at the women with the parcels who finally gave up and started to make their way back.We drove up the hill towards Azaria and saw another BP jeep patroling. The jeep dropped off three other soldiers who came to replace the three who were there already (by the wall). Among the new ones was the tall one of Russian origin, named Klayman ( who was mentioned in N's report about beating in the hotel) and a female soldier. Also, an officer named Awad whom we met before, and who claims to be the commander of the area spoke to us and seemed reasonable. The order about age limit for people without Jerusalem I.D.'s changed from 40 to 60 to 50 years old.