Bethlehem

Watchers: Y.E., M.A., N.E. and Ch. J. ,
and a German journalist.

We arrived at the Hebron (south) checkpoint at about five past six.
The checkpoint was staffed by only two reservists and traffic was
sparse in the extreme-- two cars and a lorry. The two reservists
were somewhat surprised to see us (they knew nothing about us) and
were polite. We spent about ten minutes there during which we tried
(unsuccessfully) to find out where the Hebronites wanting to go to
Bethlehem were actually coming from. Then we moved back northwards
towards Bethlehem. Here too there was very little traffic, and
again we tried to find out what was happening, and where were the
Hebronites coming from. It was here that we came across a jeep also
manned by reservists. We talked to one of them who came over to us,
a man from the Beit Zayit area who explained that there was now
more and more defensive equipment, and also a rising level of fear.
One of the soldiers in the jeep got upset at Netta's taking
photographs -- of what was going on, not of the sold! iers
themselves -- and claimed she had no right to be doing this. Netta
explained that she was within her rights. After a while we carried
on towards an island in the road where -- on our way to Hebron
south -- we had seen a few Palestinian Transits, a bus and a
military jeep. When we got there, the jeep had gone and people were
crossing a dirt barricade on foot in the direction of the nearby
village. The Transits were still there and so was the bus, the
driver very concerned that while he was supposed to get to the
Allenby Bridge to pick up elderly pilgrims returning from Mecca,
the closure meant that he had not been given a permit to get to
them. We called the IDF Humanitarian centre in Beit-El, and Yuval,
the soldier on duty, promised to help. There was also a young man
waiting for the arrival of his wife, an Israeli from Abu Ghosh--
they were supposed to meet here. He is from Hebron and she has
Israeli citizenship. He has not been given permission to live in
Israel and their r! equests for "family unification" have
been turned down. For her part, she cannot join him in living in
Hebron because she does not want to lose her Israeli citizenship.
The couple have to children aged one and two.

We got to the Gush Etzion checkpoint at about eight in the morning.
Dozens of Palestinians of all ages were milling about there near
the checkpoint in a disorderly mass waiting to be checked. The four
reservists there were edgey and at a loss as to what to do. They
were trying to check people, but not succeeding because the stream
of Palestinians was seemingly endless as they sought to find out
the "whens'" and the the "whys" of what was
preventing from continuing on their way --within the Palestinian
areas, of course, for none of them wanted to come into Israel
proper. A young man who had had his car keys and ID confiscated at
five in the morning sought our aid. But because of all the pressure
there, we couldn't do anything. The soldier we approached said he
would deal with the matter when the crush was over. Very suddenly
something quite dramatic happened: the Palestinians started moving
through the checkpoint en masse, as if the soldiers were simply not
there.! It was a spontaneous uprising. They moved onwards and the
soldiers were helpless to do anything before the mass of people.
There were a great many elderly people, children and older women --
all marching forward together. The soldier in charge was very angry
with us, and said it was our presence that had caused the
trouble.

After about an hour at this checkpoint, we went off to Hussan which
was staffed by the nice lads from the 50th regiment. There was a
line of Palestinian cars and lorries which, because of the closure,
were not being allowed through. A Palestinian ambulance arrived
waiting to pick up a sick person from El Khadr, using a back to
back transfer. Apparently a Red Cross ambulance was supposed to do
this and had already been called . The driver repeatedly asked to
be allowed to get to the patient. We rang the Humanitarian centre
in Bethlehem and this time spoke to Shai who promised to check into
the matter and get back to us (and he did keep his word).
Meanwhile, the checkpoint officer had arrived in a jeep with
breakfast for his men and he said he would arrange for the
ambulance to be let through. We returned to Jerusalem at about ten
in the morning. Ch.J.