Bethlehem (300), Etzion DCL, Fri 6.7.12, Morning

Bethlehem - Checkpoint 300, 10:00 AM:   two inspection stations are manned and people pass through.                  

We stand close to the wall and observe. There are two female soldiers in the enclosed stations. The Palestinian men and women place their magnetic cards on a shelf at waist-height and spread their permit on the window so that the soldiers can copy the number into their computer and tell the Palestinian to pass. Almost everything is based on sign-language. One of the female soldiers smiles and invites people to pass by opening her right hand upwards and moving it towards the exit in a gesture indicating that they should please pass, while the other one just gestures but doesn’t smile.  The second female soldier also talks to the guard.

At about 10.15 another three soldiers arrive and more inspection stations are opened. Politeness is preserved and people report that the time to pass through from the entrance to the exit is ten minutes. Sometimes the men are in a hurry and don’t manage to tighten their trouser-belts.  Embarrassing  . . . .

At 10.28 the computers get stuck for five minutes, and a queue of about thirty people builds-up, but it settles-down very quickly.

Children pass-through without questions today (we don’t see if they are turned back at an earlier stage) . four children pass through during the hour that we stand there.

Etzion DCL:  we have to drive to the Etzion DCL to deal with GSS-denied people, and when we return there is no-one waiting except for a professor from Al Naja university who has a permit even though he is on the GSS-denied list, and every time thaat he needs to pass through the checkpoint he is held-up.

 We report to the humanitarian center, and the female soldier tells us that she has requested a permit, but we leave before he receives the OK to pass.