Bethlehem, Etzion DCL, Tue 11.5.10, Afternoon

Time: 14:00 - 18:20 pm

15:10 pm, Etzion DCL: on the parking lot there were  7 cars with Palestinian number plates. In the waiting hall about 10 people waiting. During the first half hour no soldier behind the window of the counter.

We saw one Muslim woman from Bethlehem and her husband from Israel. We knew them already from last year. She has cancer and is getting treatment in the Augusta Victoria hospital on the mount off Olives. To get there she needs a permit. To get the permit she needs a medical prescription of the treating doctor. She had all this, but it took a long time until she got a permit for two weeks to  visit Augusta Victoria hospital.

There was a young man applying for a permit to an eye clinic in  Jerusalem. He told us in Hebrew that he had some experience in Israeli prisons and that the Shabak was asking him several times to do them "a little favour".If  he did, he would get a permit, if not - no permit.. This was the decision of the DCL too.

There was a young women in a wheel chair. In a traffic accident she had lost both legs. An admirable person: charming, with humor and intelligence. She is studying at Bethlehem University. After her graduation there she will get a scholarship for London. 

She told us: Abu Mazen is paying everything. She got a permit to visit Hadassa Ein Karem, where she had been  operated and is still getting treatment  today.

A young man who wanted to get treatment in an eye clinic in Jerusalem had forgotten his medical prescription. So  he had to come back again.

17.10 pm, Bethlehem - Checkpoint 300: because we were waiting a  long time in the Etzion DCL for the permits of the sick applicants we were late in Bethlehem.

The rush hour was over. Only 3 counters were open. The queues to Bethlehem were short. Tourists coming from Bethlehem, among them a friend of Hannah, told us that they had to leave their bus (usually the tourist buses were just crossing the checkpoint) to  walk through all the stations of the checkpoints. By friends I learned that tourists can no longer pass the 'tunnel checkpoint' but have to take the Bethlehem checkpoint which necessitates waiting endlessly.