Bethlehem, Etzion DCL, Wed 16.1.08, Morning

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Observers: 
Rachel R., Ora A. (reporting) Yosef M (driving and helping)
Jan-16-2008
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Morning

Bethlehem, El Nashash, Nebe Yunis, Etzion

Bethelhem CP:

 Long queues.   Five positions open.   Three process quickly; at two of them, the Palestinians have to go through an examination of the palms of their hands, and the passage is slow.   The Palestinians complain that on the Bethlehem side an enormous number of people are waiting and they are processed slowly.   We spoke to R and suggested that an additional checking station should be opened.   He agreed “to check the matter”.   However, this didn’t help and by the time we left, no additional station had been opened.   The people waiting at the entry to Bethelhem are exposed to the wind, cold and rain.   No shelter has been built there yet.   We have complained about this in the past and must do so again. 

0715    El Nashash 

    Two Palestinians arrive with whom we had spoken before and who brought papers for Haya.

0740   Nebe Yunis 

    Taxi-drivers who had received traffic tickets ask for our help.   One shows us a ticket which had been doubled again and again (traffic tickets that are not paid on time are doubled, and then again if they are not paid by the prescribed date ), and had reached the sum of 42,000 shekels !   He asks us for advice on how to reduce the fine.   Another driver, who wants to pay a fine but cannot because he is not allowed to enter the post-office and pay there, asks that payment should be made via us.   A third one has to bring receipts to the Ras EL Amoud police-station but he is not allowed to go there and he asks us to do this for him. 

0745  Etzion DCL

      The parking lot is almost empty.   Only a few people are waiting 
     there.   A notice at
the entrance says that the police office will be
     closed from 17January at 1100 until 30  January. At 1100. 
    Apparently they hurried to close it already today, because we
    phoned twice to the policeman M, but he didn’t answer.   His
    superior told us that he should be in the office, and that she
    doesn’t know how to explain the notice about the lengthy closureinfo-icon
    A man on the Special Security Service’s “denied” list approached
    us and we directed him to Sylvia..   
 

Note :  Again the problem of the lack of a shelter at the entrance to Bethlehem comes up.