Bethlehem (300)

9:00 to 11:00

In preparation for Passover at the checkpoint - renovations, repairs, cleaning and a little more guidance

The first 4 windows are blocked, on the third window there is a piece of paper written in Arabic announcing: the entrance to Bethlehem is from there, and an arrow points toward a farther window, where the middle gate is wide open. Good of them to finally think they have to direct people who are not familiar with the rules!

As for the entrance to Israel, two windows are open - window 5 (where the biometric identification device is installed) and window 6 (where there is no installation and hence the passage is a lot faster of course). Palestinians occasionally wonder why the lucky ones who stood in front of window 6 pass so much faster than those who stood in front of window 5. Those who notice the difference are trading windows. This situation demonstrates more than anything just how arbitrary it all is: in window 6 one passes with a permit. In window 5 one passes with a permit, plus a fingerprint check, where many are required to repeatedly rub their finger time and again, and then again press the finger till the device is able to decipher...

Since the entrance is filthy because the ongoing work and because I want to see what happens in the open windows, I stood in front of window 6. Within minutes the security guard arrived:

- Stand at the entrance! You are disturbing here and it’s forbidden for you to be here!

- We always stand here to see what happens during the checking. You can ask your commander.

Later his commander came out and repeated the same text, as did I. Then he told me he is the commander here, and I must not stand here because of ongoing work; that I can complain about him if I want (he gave me his full name and his personal number) and that I have to stand at the entrance. I stood in front of window 4 so I could see very well what was happening at the checking, and no one came back to bother me.

Many people passed, there was not even one shout from the other side of the checkpoint (the Palestinian side), many were smiling and / or said "thank you" (?), many children passed too. I saw one person who was denied entry because he didn’t have a permit.