Morning

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Mar-2-2003
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At Etzion checkpoint around 7.15, the place appeared empty and quiet . After a while, buses began arriving at the checkpoint, but the total volume of Palestinian traffic coming from the direction of Hebron and heading to El-Khadr (Bethlehem) remained small. The reason became clear as soon as the passengers of the first bus were ordered to get off and stand in line for ID and permit check. Soldiers do not allow Palestinian men under the age of 40 (at times this rises to 45 and 50, we are told) to proceed in the direction of Bethlehem, unless they hold permits specifying that they are allowed to enter and work in the settlements or in Israel proper. Passage between two adjacent West Bank districts is therefore conditioned upon the possession of a permit to work in Israeli locales. Passengers ordered off the buses were grouped in two; men above 40 & few permit holders were allowed to re-board and continue their journey, while men under 40 with out permits were not allowed to continue. A few managed to proceed with their journey despite the soldiers.A group of approximately 15 young men arrived at the checkpoint compound, all of them construction workers from Yata village who work in Bethlehem. They were let off by their bus driver some 500 meters before the checkpoint, from where they continued by foot in a bypass path only to be caught by a soldiers' ambush set in the thin forest to the east of Etzion junction. Five or six soldiers arrived at the checkpoint, including a woman combat soldier. The detained Palestinian workers would now have to wait for another two hours until their IDs are returned, losing another day of work. From there we continued to El-Khadr roadblocks, where there was no presence of soldiers or border police. At the Husan eastern roadblocks, we were approached by a group of bus drivers, all of whom carry Civil Administration permits to drive their Palestinian plated vehicles on the route El-Khadr (roadblocks) - Halhul (roadblocks) (less than 20 KM). Under the current restrictions, which prevent them from entering zone A and zone B, that is all Palestinian residential areas (limiting them in fact to a section of the main road), and prevent passengers without permits to move between districts, these drivers remain idle during most of the day, spending hours at this improvised bus station (the last stop on their route) waiting for their turn. The drivers complained bitterly about the above described current restrictions that condition passage between districts on permits, and pleaded for our intervention.