Today I travelled by Palestinian bus from Ramallah, one of the main cities in the West bank, back into Jerusalem. This is a journey forbidden to most Palestinians, so those on the bus ( which was full) would have had Jerusalem ID cards or a permit giving permission to work in Jerusalem. At the checkpoint, which resembles something like a toll on a Motorway, but with the addition of heavily armed soldiers, the bus stops and everyone gets out their ID. The chatter on the bus reduces markedly as two heavily armed soldiers ( who look no older than 19 or 20) proceed slowly along the bus examining everyone’s ID. No-one speaks apart from the soldier at the front who sometimes speaks in Hebrew to a passenger. I’ve no idea if they understand her. She shouts at a smartly dressed young man who is stood on the exit steps half away along the bus the seats are all taken) and he doesn’t speak but in vain tries to make himself as small as possible. 5 people on the bus have their ID taken from them and they silently get off the bus. I couldn’t see what happened next, but other passengers were looking out in concern. No-one spoke though and they didn’t get back on the bus. I wasn’t able to take any photos of all this, or of the checkpoint on the Ramallah side, but the photos here are of the Jerusalem side, showing men returning from work going through the pedestrian route. The other photos are the wall over the next mile. There are shops and houses either side which must once have been part of the same neighbourhood. I wondered where the woman at the kerbside had come from and where she was headed?
