Bethlehem

Gush Etzion, 0700: Brisk motion, many people coming from Hebron,
crossing the checkpoint getting on transits to Bethlehem. We saw
also a bus full of people headed towards Bethlehem. But the bus
company manager complained to us about having his bus stopped, and
the policeman telling him that people should walk. We saw several
detained transit drivers with their vehicles near the CP, but also
transits leaving briskly down road 60, including transits with
Palestinian registration. Occasionally an officer would approach
and stop the transit. At the CP, a blue policeman, reasonably
civil, claimed that only people with valid permits and humanitarian
cases can pass, but did not seem very strict.

The Al Khadr entrance was blocked by barbed wire. Orders
were to pass only students, valid permit holders and humanitarian
cases. The soldiers were reasonably civil. Near the checkpoint were
several detained people who had been caught in the mountains. When
one called us for help, a soldier closed the checkpoint as
collective punishment, and threatened to keep the guy detained for
extra hours. The officer did not have the stamina to stop him, but
after a few minutes, the checkpoint was reopened. A Husan man was
not let in to Bethlehem, "because he did not have a good
enough reason to go there". Getting to Bethlehem seemed pretty
much to be by whim of the soldiers, who claimed that they are much
more lenient than their orders.

checkpoint 300: looked deserted, manned by BP.