Sheikh Sa’ad checkpoint and the American road, Cliff Hotel and the Kidmat Tzion settlement, A-Zeitun checkpoint (Ras al Sabitan)

07:45  Sheikh Sa’ed – The promised driver from Issawiyya didn’t show up so we left late in Chana the indefatigable’s car.  The steep, narrow road down from Jabal Mukaber to Sheikh Sa’ed checkpoint is particularly difficult to navigate when masses of pupils fill it on their way to school.  Most of the girls wear white hijabs, less ascetic and depressing than the black variety.  The checkpoint’s concrete structure is supported by a cement wall, part of the separation wall between Jabal Mukaber and its satellite neighborhood Sheikh Sa’ed.

Last week we received complaints by phone about long delays at the checkpoint (which is open only to pedestrians), delaying physicians from reaching the hospital and pupils from getting to school on time.  But few are crossing at this hour, and two female Border Police soldiers and a civilian security person come over to speak with us with a refreshing openness on what’s going on at the checkpoint.  They say there are long lines only when people are leaving for work between 05:00 and 06:00, and when teachers and students cross between 06:45-07:45.  Inspections are conducted as efficiently as possible.  We didn’t see the crossings themselves because it’s forbidden to return from Sheikh Sa’ed to Jerusalem if you’re not a resident of the neighborhood, but we understood that it’s not possible to speak to the soldiers before reaching the inspection booth.  Only to crowd into the narrow passage between the revolving gates, and wait.  Nor have the residents any phone number they can call to report delays – the humanitarian office formerly located in the Jerusalem Outskirts administration closed a while ago, nor is there any connection with the DCL and Border Police duty officers who could attempt to solve specific problems.  That’s obviously an unhealthy situation, with no one to talk to when things go awry.

The checkpoint personnel is interested in what we do, and we’re wondering what they think of the “Ma’avarim” TV series.  It speaks to them, they’re familiar with the characters, identify with them, but also understand the difficult situation of the Palestinians who are blocked in.  They themselves want to know whether we’re really opposed to the soldiers at the checkpoints, and what are our solutions.  A good conversation; we part better understanding each other.

To Ras el Amud and Abu Dis – The challenging work continues on Jerusalem’s eastern and southern ring road being slowly paved from Highway 398 to the Ein Aluza junction (the turn from the Jabal Mukaber road to Silwan), and even farther – on the route of the narrow, poorly maintained “American road” dating from the mid-twentieth century.  A large bridge is planned over the wadi filled with olive trees south of the Sheikh Sa’ed checkpoint, which will serve as the exit to the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood and also, perhaps, to Jabal Mukaber.  The neighborhood residents are in contact with “Bimkom” (Planners for Planning Rights), having consulted with them about filing objections at the end of September 2019.

There is an urgent need for a better way of reaching East Jerusalem from the southern neighborhoods, but the already-paved northern portion of the eastern ring road (between Anata and A-Za’im) is an apartheid road divided by walls between Palestinian and Israeli traffic, and there’s a serious danger that it will be mainly settlers who’ll benefit from the ring road that will bring them quickly from the settlements north and south of Jerusalem to the united city.  Cf. the plan on Wikipedia: https://tinyurl.com/wau43bs

Another unpleasant location is the Ma’aleh Hazeitim settlement at Ras el Amud.  We hadn’t seen it for a number of years (Ada and I), and it’s been transformed into a fortified neighborhood on both sides of the road…

Cliff Hotel and the Kidmat Tzion settlement – This is truly an old story, but it’s heartbreaking to see the deterioration of the hotel that knew much better days.  Hagit Ofran reported that the Kidmat Tzion settlement house 5-6 families, and more construction is planned.

Lazarus checkpoint between Abu Dis and Azariyya is hermetically shut – Another unfortunate location is the checkpoint intended for pilgrims, kindergartners, pupils and others to cross through the wall separating the houses of Abu Dis from those of Azariyya.  Here too there’s a pseudo-successful legal outcome – eventually, the wall was moved, but rebuilt so it blocks the windows of the appellants from Abu Dis.

At this point, we wanted to bring Chana and her vehicle, which were both exhausted, to a stop, but she kept going uphill and down along steep, narrow roads to Hazeitim checkpoint (Ras al Sabitan/Zeitun).

10:00  After a brief visit and parking alongside two donkeys and a foal we decided (Anat did, at least), that it would be very worthwhile to return, cross to the Palestinian side of the checkpoint, and to find out how rapidly the DCL now issues magnetic cards as part of the “Magnetic card for every Palestinian child” campaign.  Even though it’s not during peak hours, people complained they had to wait a long time to cross because only one lane was open even though there were pleasant female soldiers in the booth of the closed lane.  It opened after I loudly complained on behalf of our organization.