Bethlehem (300), Etzion DCL, Thu 12.1.12, Afternoon

Etzion DCL, 14:15 pm:  in the hall, two young men were waiting.  We called the soldier on duty and he let them in.  Outside the relatives of those people who were delayed inside were waiting.   One of them complained he’d been waiting for over three hours, since 11:00, for his wife.

A  father and his son exited into the hall and approached us.  The father explained that his son’s name on his ID card is “Issa”, after his grandfather, but that the boy’s mother, not liking the name (or the grandfather), has always called the boy Muhammad.  
When the soldier asked the boy his name, the boy replied, “Muhammad.”  Seeing the discrepancy, the soldier refused to handle their request.  One of those waiting nearby advised them to return next week and to make sure the boy said his official name next time.

A man approached us whose 2 year-old son had an appointment at the Hadassah Hospital’s sleep clinic this coming Sunday and Tuesday.  The father had paid 500 NIS for the treatment and showed the DCL soldier  the receipt and the the Hadassah  referral. But soldiers refused to let him through on the grounds that the receipt hadn’t come directly from the Hadassah Hospital onto the DCL computer.  The receipt in his hand was considered invalid.  We tried contacting the Hadassah Hospital Sleep Clinic to get them to send the receipt by fax to the DCL, but couldn’t get through.  When we returned to Jerusalem we drove there, but the clinic was closed.

 Shlomit drove there again on Sunday, got through some bureaucratic hurdles, and successfully got the receipt sent over to the DCL.