Bethlehem

We started the shift at the Bethlehem.
At the check point things were quiet. A short line of people – most
of them were let through. We were told (by the cooperative
commander) that there is a holiday today ("something with
Maria, he had said) and therefore Christians were allowed through
if they had a permit (so a woman Christian teacher was let through
in spite of not having a special permit). He also complained that
he hasn't seen women from MachsomWatch for months(!?) asked where
were we and said that he misses us (????!!!!).

Behind the checkpoint there was a hide-and-seek game going on. The
Palestinians were trying to avoid the two patrol jeeps and steal
their way through, so each time the soldiers turned around, there
were some 20 people running behind their back, and when they
suddenly turned back - all the people started running back. The
Palestinian women were laughing during the running-session, and
everyone seemed to be playing the game, including the soldiers, who
seemed amused and apparently did not get angry at all, maybe
because we were there. Many Palestinians (~20) were passing-runnig
through Tantur.

At El Khadr there were no soldiers. The drivers told us that not
many people are passing by these days because of the closure, and
confirmed that the soldiers change the addresses on peoples cards,
but said they do that when the Palestinian Interior Office indeed
changes the address in their files, so we understood there was some
kind of cooperation going on between the two authorities, although
this is not sure and should be checked.