Bethlehem (300)

9:00 to 10:30

Very cold and yet people still pass to Jerusalem and return to Bethlehem.

Only one window is open. Most of the time two women soldiers are in the window but only one is operating. There is no need for more since there aren’t many people. One can hardly hear the soldier: it is all done with a hand and head gestures, but with a smile and a kind of courtesy. Still she doesn’t let anyone pass without placing the finger on the biometric identification device, rubbing and attempting once again, and even replacing the right index finger with the left hand finger, but everything quietly. People comply and leave. No one was detained, no one was rejected.

No senior officer came out into the hallway; there were no soldiers who went on patrol. No representative of the ecumenical. Cold and silence.