Abu-Dis

Abu Dis, Waadi Naar,

M.M., M. K., S., N.S.

Abu Dis--We arrived at Abu Dis at about 3:15. There was very heavy
rain all

day and the road to Abu Dis had huge pools of water that were hard
to drive

across. In general there were many traffic jams today and it took
ages to

get anywhere. After trying variouse ways to reach Abu Dis, we
managed to get

there through the MT. of Olives.

WE drove past the Pish Pash which is totally closed and the small
road

leading to it is blocked by huge concrete blocks. There were no
soldiers

there and some people were climbing on the wall
there.

We parked near the Gas Station. There were not many people around,
probably

due to the rain and there were also no soldiers in sight. We found
a place

to climb over the wall. At one spot, on the hill leading up to the
hotel

somebody had placed a chair adjacent to the wall. One has to be in
pretty

good physical shape in order to make this climb. My myself was
somewhat

daunted, but finally managed it. There were Palestinian men
climbing back

and forth at this spot, and one of them said that it wasn't for us,
this

climbing. Children also climbed at this spot and there was an
elderly

Palestinians woman, dressed in the usual long dress and coat, who
tried to

climb, but couldn't manage it. It is pretty impossible to make this
climb

with a long dress as one has to swing one's legs pretty
high.

After scaling the wall, we trudged down to the taxis and found one
tht took

us to Waadi Naar. There was a HUGE, LONG, LONG, LONG line of cars
in both

directions although not many pedestrians. It seems that the
pedestrians

walk down a road below the checkpoint and it wasn't clear if there
were

soldiers there, although it was clear the people preferred it. It
was

raining miserably and so we weren't too adventurous. At the
checkpoint were

two soldiers. Oe held his rifle pointed at anybody who came near
and the

other did the checking at a liesurely pace. We asked about the
rifle being

pointed at all who approached and were told tearsely that they are
doing

their job. I suspect this is a new order as I"ve seen it
lately in other

places too. They seemed to prefer checking the traffic coming from
Abu Dis

to Bethlehem rather than the other direction. He would mostly check
in his

favorite direction and once in a while pass a few cars in the other

direction. There was also one or two soldiers sitting in the guard
tower

who we could not see.

The soldeirs at the checkpoint were cool and correct with us. They
answered

our questions on the second or third time we asked them. We asked
why the

line was so long and they said that they were there alone. WE asked
why

they didn't get help. They didn't answer. They held up very few
people, and

when they did, they checked their IDs immediately and released them
within

10 min. The car checks were also quick and involved talking the
drivers,

looking at documents and then looking over the passengers.
Occassionally

they would pull some young man out for checking. They were correct
and fast

when they checked, but they took breaks and the line moved
painfully slowly.

I tried calling everybody on the list. I did it from Sima's
telephone, so

they wouldn't recognize the number. Mostly there were no answers.
The two

that answered said that they were not in charge and suggested that
I call

the camp. I asked the commander of the checkpoint (one of the two
who were

standing there) and he said that they have asked for help.
Eventually a

Patrol jeep appeared and it seemed they were visiting the two who
were

stationed there. We asked them if they had come to help and they
said no,

they are just visiting. We asked them to call somebody to come to
help with

this endless line of cars and they said they would. At one point we
heard

the two who were there (we were not allowed to actually stand by
their side

and contented ourselves with standing opposite them) talking on
their phones

and asking to be relieved.

We asked the people at the grocery store if they could sell us some
tea (it

was really cold and wet) at first they sent us off to the
container, but

later they came out with wonderful tea for us.They refused
payment.

A taxi was pulled out (the reason unclear to us) and told to stand
there. I

asked the soldiers why they were standing there and the soldier
said that

they could go, so I told them. I was profousely thanked. I suspect
it was

a misunderstanding. It's not clear.

Sima, who is still new to all this was really upset and she said
something

to the soldiers. Something about being human beings. After that
they told

us to move farther away to a place from which we could not hear
what they

were saying at all.

It got dark and we decided to go home. The line of cars was still
endless.

We found a cab immediately and found ourselves at the wall which we
climbed

at the same spot, now being more experienced. The climbing in the
rain is

even more dangerous than usual.