Bethlehem, Etzion DCL, Mon 24.11.08, Afternoon
14:00 PM, Etzion DCL: in contrast to my last reports everything this time was very well organized, soldier were polite and efficient.
750 was the lowest number of the day and when we arrive number 802 came out- meaning 52 people had been dealt with, not including those who came to renew their finger prints and permits.
There were four cases that needed more attention:
- A woman and her child who didn't have a number for the magnetic card.
- A person that was summoned to the GSS and hadn't been attended to.
- a 74 year old man that paid to get to Mecca and was sent back through Alenbi bridge.
- A person that was prevented passage by the GSS and couldn’t get his magnetic card renewed.
At about 15:30 some officers arrived, among them was the head of the DCL, they took care of each one of those cases.
-The woman and her child came in and immediately got out with what she needed.
-The person waiting for the GSS was called in.
-The man who wanted to get to Mecca was sent to the DCL at Hebron, the area to which he
belonged, to take care of the preventions. He had spent the entire day at Etzion, and only at
three o'clock he found out that his lawyer's advice got him to waist his day at the wrong place.
-The person who was prevented passage was told he had to take care of his problem at the
Palestinian DCL.
A person came to meet a group of Palestinian detainees
that had been released after spending a week under interrogation at the detention installation by the DCL. The one that gave him and the group the explanations was a woman soldier. Shlomit later praised her for her polite behavior towards the Palestinians and her efficiency.
We found out that it is possible to talk quietly and listen without yelling, that it is possible to be polite and that the soldiers are capable to answer questions. We saw that rudeness isn't a necessity at the DCL.
It was the first time since we had been coming to the DCL that such a big group of Palestinians had been released after 7 days of interrogation. They were split into two groups according to their villages, 10 people from one village and 13 - from another village. All in all about 30 people were arrested a week ago from two villages. More than half of them were released after a week and no other actions against them will be taken. They all had to pay 23,000 Shekels for bail, a nice profit for one day.
Does any one have any figures regarding the number for detainees, the number of days in detention and the bail money they hand in?