Abu-Dis

0900: Many elderly women with
Palestinian IDs are not let through. Otherwise, most people with
blue IDs and permits had no trouble passing. The soldiers said this
was the command from higher up - we called to find out, and it was
confirmed. One young man asked the soldiers if he could jump over
the concrete blocks while the gate was closed, and they said OK. So
he did ... Other people were climbing over the wall near the
university, precariously, right under the noses of soldiers, and a
few kids slipped through the narrow openings or passed packages
across. Meantime, the new commander arrived. He said that between 5
and 9 that morning everyone was let through, - but then things
became unruly, and they closed the gate. We pointed out that the
situation was very calm now. Within minutes we saw that everyone
was allowed to pass without being checked.

Sawahre: 10:45 to 12:45. Here the rule was that people were only
allowed to cross if they were on their way home - if they lived on
this side of the checkpoint, say in Abu Dis, Ramallah, Nablus,
Jenin, or Jericho, they could go back North/East; if they lived in
the south, Bethlehem, Hebron, they could go back south, but not the
other way around. These were strict orders. At times, IDs were
taken to be checked by phone, to determine the exact residency of
the person. Ambulances went both ways, without much delay in
checking. One trucker had been trying since the previous night to
take his load of straw to Bethlehem, but he had to spend the night
in his truck. He was registered in Jenin. A border police jeep
arrived with a change of guard. We approached the new commander
(who identified himself only after we insisted on our right to
know), and said that maybe in an hour or two, if he received
different orders, he would open the checkpoint in both directions.
A few minutes later, the rules changed and the waiting truck driver
was finally allowed through to Bethlehem, as were some others, in
either direction. Waiting has become a fact of life, and sometimes
it pays off.