Abu-Dis

R.A.and O.M.

Summary: very quiet, no special incidents recorded. There are the
beginnings of construction of the fence alongside the hotel and
soon it will be impossible to cross over there. We met a woman who
lives in the neighbourhood and whose family owns the land in the
area and we listened to her complaints about the situation. A
reminder from the previous report: the officer in charge of the Abu
Dis, el-Azzariya and Sawahre district as far as the checkpoint is
called Amin Hassan-- he has replaced Fadi -- and he is directly
responsible to Haviv Edri. We met him last week and he told us we
could contact him if there are problems.

Overall, it was quiet at the Pishpesh, there were no soldiers at
the spot and people climbed over as usual. At the Phage (Bethfage)
crossing stood three Border Police. They said that crossing was
forbidden and that they were sending back all those who approached.
But we noticed hat they ignored a man who did cross and simply let
him go on his way. They did check passing vehicles.

We saw no soldiers along the length of the wall nor at the
hotel.

At the Sawahre checkpoint there was more or less unimpeded traffic
although taxis were stopped from time to time and held up for usual
5 to 30 minutes. There is some improvement in the by-pass for those
who live on the other side of the checkpoint-- i.e. a more or less
proper path for pedestrians, although there is still no passage for
vehicles despite all that has been said on the matter.

Alongside the hotel are the beginnings of work on the wall -- large
cement blocks and a crane -- we estimate that in about a fortnight
to three weeks it will no longer be possible to cross there. Rahel
already has an idea about an alternative.

We met a woman who lives nearby who told us that the land that is
being built on belongs to her and that in fact the land has been
confiscated from her family without any prior warning or
compensation -- notices were posted up in the street about the
building of the wall, but none were given to
individuals.

She gave us the following explanations:1) the land has effectively
been confiscated although officially it is only being used for the
purposes of the on-going work; 2)In the course of the work , the
area has been laid waste, in particular, a well that stood there
has been filled up with earth. 3) The hotel belongs to a cousin of
hers who is a resident of the occupied territories. When the work
on the all is finished, the hotel will be on the western side and
can be designated as "absentee property" --i.e. to all
intents and purposes the property of the state. This is a problem
similar to that faced by other residents of the territories who own
property on the western side of the wall. 4)They want to take the
matter to the courts although the state will claim that these are
legally "absentee properties". 5) It seems that local
residents already have the matter of a legal appeal.6)The
government of Norway will intervene in this particular struggle
since the woman's cousin is married to a Norwegian woman and a
Norwegian citizen's property is thus endangered.7)The woman is the
headmistress of a school on the eastern side and she does not know
what will happen since she herself lives on the western
side.