Bethlehem, Thu 9.7.09, Morning

 6:00 AM, Bethlechem - Rachel Crossing: three checking posts are open.. In a 4th booth there sits a sleeping soldier. When we address him, he says the post is closed, but after a couple of minutes he opens it. There are no long queues and people pass quickly. Palestinians tell us that on the other side, the checkpoint was opened on time and that also there are no queues, during the whole last month. At 7:00 there are no people left to pass.
  

One of the guards of the private guard company, speaks rudely to a woman and shouts at her to return home, even before she arrives at the checking post. We get closer but cannot manage to understand what the problem is. After about 5 minutes discussion, the soldier checks her documents (not finger impressions at all) and she is allowed to cross the border. We try to understand what happened with the guard: "We are trying to avoid terrorist attacks. All Arabs are terrorists. They do not like us…."