Morning

Abu Dis: Transits were being stopped and checked near the gas station at the roudnabout, just before the final stretch leading up to the wall. We saw no Border Police when we approached the wall - they were on the other side, where about twenty young men were waiting for their IDs to be returned. They said they had already been waiting three hours, whereas the BP officers claimed it had only been ten minutes. They asked us to refrain from talking to the detaineees, since questions like "How long have you been waiting for?" were likely to make them feel that it isn't o.k. that they are waiting...There are now oblong cement blocks facilitating the climb up to the open space by the wall. Let's see how long they'll stay around.Sawahre: No checkpoint by the "container", but there was a jeep blocking traffic further down in the valley which miraculously disappeared a few minutes after we got there. A man who was told that he needs a permit to enter area B asked incredulously, "Has Eizariya become Israeli??" Far away, we saw the "real" checkpoint - long lines of cars in both directions and lots of pedestrians. When we arrived, there was no movement in either direction. The BP kept yelling "lawara!" (step back!), as if they were dealing with cattle. Amazingly, most of the people waiting appeared to be taking this with good humor. A call to the division commander responsible for the area yielded immediate results, and things started moving. Still, because of the sheer numbers, passage was slow. Asked why people were given such a hard time moving from Area B to Area C, the checkpoint commander merely said: "Those are our orders today". At the end of an hour, all the people had passed.