DCO Bethlehem (Ezion)

Bethlehem, Etzion DCO PM, Jan. 26, 2004 With follow-up Jan.27 Watchers: Yael S., Shlomit S., Eppie K.(reporting) Al-Khader – In both directions, from the car it appeared to be army-free. DCO [IDF Civilian Administration office] Bethlehem - We arrived to find that the previously strong odor of sewage at the entry to the waiting room had subsided (corrected either by the IDF or the rain), and the crowd was not large, under 40 people. The reception windows were closed for the soldiers' lunch break, as they had been for half an hour by then. During our stay, some ten people were called every hour, and with a similar number of people arriving, so that the number of people waiting remained constant. There were occasional breaks in service as punishment for the crowding of people gathering on the way to the windows. Most of the time only one window was open for permits. The magnetic cards window [issuing security clearance authorizations] was open when required.Despite Civil Administration head Ilan Paz's promises that numbers will be provided for those waiting at the DCOs, the army has done nothing to humanize the waiting conditions. The Palestinians, meanwhile, have adopted a system whereby one of them keeps a list of names and regulates the queue, which eases the anxiety of the impossibly long wait, but without solving the issue. The main difficulties we encountered concern the newly enforced restrictions regarding work permits ([25.1.] report from Tarqumiya). We found that the Palestinians, as usual, receive very partial information that only confuses the anyway circuitous process. The Bureau of Labor (Civil) located at the Etzion IDF base provides work permits - however, its location INSIDE the Army base means restricted entrance for the Palestinians (likewise the office of the Administrator General of the Ministry of Justice Estates & Trust Dept, the Apotropos, located next to it). We encountered a man sent from the Hebron DCO to Etzion to request a work permit, though being under age 35, he had no chance of receiving one. So not only he and his wife came the next day - but we did too, hoping to help the hopeless case... We also met a 70-year-old man with a job in Jerusalem, who rather than simply being given a transit permit, as he might have been last week, was made to apply for a work permit. This involved his employer calling, and possibly having to come and then fill in forms and later also make payments, a set of hurdles with a very clear likely outcome. On a follow up visit to the DCO on 27.1, Yael and Shlomit were told the man had received his work permit. A number of other cases demonstrated the new difficulties imposed even on those with regular work that calls for getting through the checkpoints with any regularity.