Bethlehem (300), Tue 6.11.12, Morning

Bethlehem – Checkpoint 300, 6:40 am:

Five checking stations open. The lines are long and crowded but moving quickly. The crowd is not noisy. The Humanitarian line is open.  A new guard tells us we may not stand inside. We are firm in our answer. He uses his cell phone and afterwards stands quite far from us, apparently ascertaining that we may be there. 

At 7:10 am 4000 people have passed.

There was one incident. We see a woman waiting for a while at a booth she has just passed because her partner is not given permission. After some minutes S, the Matak soldier, appears and yells at the soldier in the booth  It seems it is written on the man's permit that he has no fingerprint, so cannot be checked that way. All the problems should be no bigger and solved as easily!