Bethlehem, Tue 24.3.09, Morning

06:40 AM, Bethlehem  - CP 300:  a cold rainy and windy morning. When we arrived, many Palestinians were crowded in the entrance hall, waiting for their transportation. Usually, this is strictly forbidden, and people are chased out. But the weather was such that all the security men with no exception ignored this breach of rules. One soldier, though, was more conscientious, and he would shout from his booth time and again, “Go away! Go to work! Get out, all of you!” So the security men would tell the people to wait outside, under the thin plastic shed that was useless in this weather. And then the new arrivals would stay, and the guardians would not tell them out until the soldier would shout, and so on and so forth.
 Passage was quick. It was not bad on the other side either, people said. 

A young woman that we meet frequently in the CP asked for our help: a crippled woman was not allowed through because she was incapable of bending in order to take off her shoes. We called a border police (BP) commander who had previously proved to be very helpful, and indeed within minutes a police officer came out of the office and asked about her. She soon came out of the CP, and the police officer said that he had given her his phone number just in case. 

We noted a man coming out with his three-year-old son. The toddler was holding his belt. Apparently he had to take it off for the security checking. Like a real grown up.