Abu-Dis

When we arrived, the streets were
empty, because of the closure. Two BORDER POLICE soldiers sat at
the empty gas station. A few men were jumping over the wall, where
the barbed wire had been removed. At the gate on the other side of
the hill, people (blue IDs, or Orange with permit) were crossing
from Area B to C and vice versa. Two border policement were there.
Palestinian men, pleased to see us, reported that that morning,
some people had been tear gassed, including a pregnant women who
was rather ill and had to be driven to hospital. When the police
saw us approaching, they immediately let three young women go
through. The men said they had been stopped for 15 minutes before
you came. On the other side of the police held path, there is a
hardware store. The owner invited us in to smell the tear gas which
had been thrown into it the day before as retaliation to the attack
on Jaffa Street. The residue was still so heavy that we had to get
out of the shop. The owner asked our help in passing merchandise to
a buyer on the other side, but there were orders not to let any
goods through. An older man, speaking beautiful Hebrew summed the
whole frustrating experience: "Peace is made by and between
people like us, by being in contact, by talking to each other; this
removes fear, which in turn removes anger and hatred. Life is so
short, and this is such a terrible waste of it all."