Etzion DCL, Mon 7.3.11, Afternoon

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Observers: 
Ora A., Shlomit S. (reporting)
Mar-7-2011
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Afternoon
Seriously? Does this make us safer?

 

Duration: 13:15 - 17:30 pm.

Etzion DCL:   when we arrived at 13:15 there were c. 20 people in the waiting room.  We were told that no one had gone in for a long time.

After a while a few more went in.

By 13:35 six persons came out.

By 14:05 another nine persons came out.  From this time until 15:25 no one came out with a magnetic card.

The Palestinians were told that the machine was out of order, but -- miracle of miracles -- a well-dressed bank manager came out after 20 minutes holding an elegant magnetic card.  Nothing like the pull of favouritism ("protekzia") to get the machine working.

After that more trickled out.

During our 4-hour stay, between 25 and 30 persons acquired magnetic cards.

The last five to go in at around 16:30 and out at 17:15 without magnetic cards were sent home after hours of waiting. Their ID numbers were taken in order to let them in today.

Medical permits: we took care of 3 persons' requests for medical permits.

One of them claimed he had arrived at 8 a.m.  We saw him when we arrived; he called us as he stood by the windows. He had a appointment for 17:00 pm at Hadassah for his daughter, but was not being attended. Finally he received the permit close to 17:00 after one of us spoke to  Second Lieutenant Noi-Lee at 16:00 who said she would come down to the windows, but after that it took another 45 minutes until the permit was produced.  It was reported that the man had received the summons a few days earlier but had come only today.  Nevertheless, this does not seem sufficient reason to keep him waiting 9 hours for the permit.

Another case of a man two of whose children suffer from a grave muscular illness and are unable to walk. He had an appointment at Hadassah Ein-Kerem for both children but was given a permit only for his daughter and not for his 14 year old son.  We called Hadassah and they sent a request for the boy. The doctor I spoke to, Prof. Argov, said this was the fourth time he was sending. It helped. The man got a permit for both of his children, not before the Humanitarian Centre was told that the boy is prevented, for some obscure reason, from getting a permit.

A third case of a young man who had an appointment for Hadassah on 9.3.11.  In the military records it was recorded that the appointment was for the 14th, even though he held a summons for the 9th -- reason enough, of course, not to grant the permit.

We called Hadassah, and another invitation was sent to Beth El.

Here a further problem arose. The man had been caught as an illegal resident and needed permission from the police to enter for medical treatment.  Maher said he would get the form from the DCL, the matter would be dealt with, and he would get the permit the following day. According to him, he had been told that it would take one week to deal with this, and if he left the request now, it would be thrown out.

We advised him to make a new appointment, and submit a request.

At first we were told their documents could not be found.

During our shift we were joined by a settler from Kibbutz Nir-Etzion in the Gush.  He had come for some other reason, but stayed with us for about an hour and a half until we left, and learned some things about the workings of the DCL.  In the evening he inquired about the man who was late for his Hadassah appointment -- had he made it?