Bethlehem

A severe car accident occurred at the
El Khadr junction at 3:45, half an hour before our arrival. A
Palestinian woman who crossed the main road was hit by an Israeli
transit and taken by an Israeli ambulance to Hadassah Ein Karem
hospital, in fatal condition. The victim, NS, 64 years old from the
village Husan, was treated inside the ambulance. At 16:30 the
ambulance took her accompanied by her elder son M., to the
hospital. On the spot were 2 blue police cars, a DCO commander, an
army jeep, and a crowd of Palestinian pedestrians and drivers. N's
husband, IS, 67, a stone builder and his son B. have Palestinian
IDs. The father was under great stress, wiping his tears quietly.
All he wanted was to get to the hospital to see his wife. For this
he needed a permit. We intervened. Etzion policeman B. phoned
Etzion DCO commander AS, who promised that the permits would be
"waiting for father and son at the DCO counter", this to
take 20 minutes at most. Well, it took more than 2 intolerable
humiliating hours to get the permits, and we are talking of an
emergency. The counter was manned by a Russian speaking soldier,
who took his time {understatement} to deal with us and the other
emergency situations. After more than an hour, we phoned AS, who
was somewhere inside the unapproachable grounds of the DCO. He sent
permits for other members of the family, dated for the next day to
the counter, but the son B. was refused entry by decree of the
security forces - and that was that. We asked AS to come down to
the gate himself to talk with us, and he finally arrived, with his
assistant and another high ranking officer. We insisted that he
issue permits for the same day and for three days for all the
family. It took another 30 minutes and permits we requested
arrived, including for B. We brought father and son to the hospital
at 20:30 and departed from these two dignified people, not knowing
whether the mother would survive the night. We have since learned
from the son that N's condition has improved, and there is hope for
partial recovery. The permits for the family were renewed without
problems and B says the hospital treatment is very good.