Morning

Bethlehem - a few cars were exiting Bethlehem and there was very light pedestrian traffic. A barrier at the Jerusalem end of the pedestrians' path seemed an unnecessary annoying addition - and the officer said he would have it replaced by a STOP sign like the one at the southern end. There was a group of detainees whom we couldn't visit - the police told us that they were not their (the Bethlehem B.P.) responsibility, but had been brought there by the Jerusalem Border Police. At el Khadr we met one of then. It turned out that he he had been detained by the checkpoint border policemen and hedid have a permit to enter and work in Jerusalem and he has been using this all the time (and comes in regularly to work at the Van Leer Institute), as it is a work permit that doesn't need a signature (or stamp?). But this day's police wouldn't recognize its validity. And so he had returned by taxi to ElKhadr and now, at about 8.30, would go back to Hebron by bus. He had set out at 4 a.m.! Some people got through Tantur and we saw 2 crossing the wadi.El Khadr. After the heavy night rain, the path was a morass of mud. There were crowds picking their way through, in both directions, with heavy parcels, mothers carrying little children, kids on their way to school. Many of the pedestrians were those alighting from busses which came from Hebron. We spoke to the taxi drivers offering rides to Ramallah, Abu Dis and Jerusalem. One asked me wistfully what part of Jerusalem I lived in - he had been a driver there for 20 years before the Intifada.Gush Etzion junction - we there found three stationary busses from Hebron. Each one in turn was emptied, the passengers' documents checked. When they were all cleared, the busses moved north to El Khadr (we saw them there again on our way back) - so the checking at Gush Etzion explains why everyone could pass through freely at El Khadr.