Pictures of the Wall 3

While I was photographing today, I met a student called Khaled, who took me to this part of town quite near to where he lives. He told me that when the Israelis were building the wall about 4 years ago, they imposed a curfew on the whole town for two or three days, allowing people to come out only for a few hours a day to buy food. This was to allow the builders to get on with the construction uninterrupted. On the other side of the wall you can see not far away the Mount of Olives, and the Dome of the Rock in the Old City of Jerusalem. Abu Dis is really a suburb of Jerusalem but has been cut off from it completely. If you don't have a blue id card (most of the people here have green West Bank cards) you will never be able to get there. Khaled's mother has a blue card because she originally comes from Jerusalem, but his father comes from here and has a green card. Khaled himself has 'inherited' his father's green card status. I think he told me that the last time he went to Jerusalem was six years ago, before the wall was built. He doesn't know if he will ever be able to go there again.