Bethlehem, Etzion DCL, Mon 30.3.09, Afternoon

Etzion DCL:  this time, we decided to give the report a name : “Quotas”, and to search for the dictionary definition. However, the word is so general and understood to its users that there is no need for an explanation. It means “a limited quantity”.

So the limitation of the number of Palestinian workers allowed to come to work in Israel is equivalent to a quota that is determined by the Israeli government. The number of checkpoints through which workers can pass into Israel is also limited, meaning that there is also a checkpoint-quota.

And so-on and so-forth, everything is measured, considered and limited, like the number of turnstiles, computers, and the holes in the walls. Sometimes the quota is not a limitation but the setting of a minimum, like - for example - what is the quota for the number of Palestinians who are to be detained for questioning by the GSS, and for those who are to be summoned to appear before captain Nimmer, major Uzi or captain Allah in the Etzion DCL.

How did we remember the subject of quotas? Because of a doctor who had arrived several times to obtain a magnetic card but was refused. Instead, he was taken for questioning by the GSS, and when I asked the spokesperson of the manager, Arieh, he answered:  “apparently they had completed the quota for today”.
 

I tried to point-out to him that there was nobody in the queue for magnetic cards, and that all three positions were un-manned  (they shouldn't pretend that they are occupied in preparing cards for people who aren't present, because magnetic cards can be issued only to people who are in the DCL). I also reminded him that when the quotas for magnetic cards were defined there were terribly long queues, and that was why they were limited. He then told me very politely that I should send my complaint in writing. I shall therefore send this report directly to the head of the Civil Administration and to his spokesperson.
 

Apart from all the above, there were some more people waiting for the GSS, and one of them told us he had been informed that he was on the GSS denied list until the year 2013. (He had completed his imprisonment long-ago, including the years of probation, and they had added four more years of GSS denial “on account”).  
Another one had come on his own initiative to try to receive some permit or other.

We passed through Rachel's passage at about15.00 PM and it was completely deserted, except for one young man who was still doing-up his trousers (which he had had to pull down for the body-search - translator) on his way to a taxi.

Soon another closure of the occupied territories will come into force (during the Passover festival - translator), and also we shall see if there are any changes resulting from the new Israeli government.