Two nights ago I went to the cafe where my friend Mosa works. The cafe is about five minutes walk from where I live, on the main road which goes through Abu Dis then into the next village (Bethany) and then on to Jerusalem. Mosa works there every evening from the time it opens at six until it closes at one.
When I get there at about eight it is empty, only Mosa and one other friend of his. It is a large space, lots of tables, stone floor, television in the corner showing satellite tv - a program about Michael Jackson. There are people talking about him in floods of tears etc. I ask Mosa why there are so few people here tonight. It is because of the soldiers, he said. Earlier, an Israeli military vehicle had pulled up outside the cafe and had been stopping people on the road, demanding to see their ids. It is very frequent for soldiers to come into cafes, line everybody they find including staff outside and inspect their papers. Usually the process is very drawn out and can take an hour. Of course, during that time the cafe does no business at all. These cafes, where men especially young men come and socialise are particular targets of the soldiers, perhaps because they see them as centres of subversion, danger, resistance etc. Mosa told me that this week the soldiers had been particularly active in his cafe, coming in every day. He of course is bundled out with the rest of them and the cafe takes in no money during the process. I ask him how many soldiers come. 'About 20', he says. One day the captain remained behind and sat down at a table. 'I just want to see how you work', he told Mosa. 'I don't work', Mosa replied. I have taken my passport with me just in case. If I am caught up in a search I am going to have to produce it as id. Everybody else will have green or blue passes. I am wondering what difference my UK passport will make, or the name in it Solomon, whether it will make things 'better' or 'worse' for me.
A digression on zones:
If this is part of the Palestinian Territory which is supposed to be self-governing, how is it possible for Israeli soldiers to be here?
As I have mentioned before the West Bank - the area of Palestine occupied by the Israelis since the 1967 war - is not a single unified territory. Under the terms of the 1993 Oslo accords, it is divided into 3 zones A, B, and C. Zone A is the part under the control of the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah, which was set up to be the first step towards a Palestinian state. Zone B is under the control of the Palestinian authority as far as ordinary government is concerned, but policing is under the control of the Israeli army. Zone C is off closed to Palestinians completely. Then there are the Israeli settlements, which are scattered all over the territory. The main settlement near here is Ma'ale Adumim which bends around Abu Dis to the east. And there are also checkpoints all over the territory that can make even a short journey as the crow flies lengthy or slow, if there are tail backs, or if the soldiers there decide to take their time. And also roads for the use of settlers only.
Abu Dis is in Zone B, which means that there are Israeli soldiers here who as I have said, carry out raids of cafes regularly. My housemate Sarah told me a story about the brother of a friend of hers, a teenager who was hit by a soldier for not having his id on him. Khalid, the young student I befriended also told me that if a kid throughs a stone at a military vehicle (apparently this is quite a common thing - young male teenagers tend to do this quite often), soldiers will catch and beat a teenager even if it not the one who threw the stone, to encourage the others I suppose.
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