Bethlehem

A group of Palestinians from Bethlehem
and area had called shortly after 06:00, complaining that they had
been caught by the BP between Rachel's Tomb and the Bethlehem
checkpoint, taken to the post near Tantur, and were waiting there
following the confiscation of their ID cards. When we got there
about 20-30 men were standing disconsolately by the road side. We
managed eventually to get a commitment from the BP officer that the
men would soon have their IDs returned.

Etzion: Amazing sight! Traffic--including buses and taxis --
proceeded unimpeded despite the presence of a half dozen or so
reservists. At the side of the road an orderly line of men waited
until each was called forward, showed the two reservists their IDs,
and were nodded on. Not one was held up in the 15 minutes or so
that we stood there. The "punishment" cell notorious
since last week was nowhere in sight.

Halhul: Here life was very different. The dirt wall at the entrance
to Halhul has been divided into two, as if by some giant hand. The
result is a double wall which the Halhul residents -- old, young
and women with babies in their arms, or their visitors -- must
negotiate by clambering up one side, down the other, and then up
and down the second parallel wall. Inside Halhul wait a large
number of yellow taxis who can only drive from one side of the town
to the other. Goods are transported in the back-to-back goods
method. Several kilometres further on was another checkpoint. Again
the same scene of a steep and slippery dirt barricade, this one
close to Hebron, and reservists manning a roadblock.