Etzion DCL

A man who said he collected Alte Zachen wanted to collect in a settlement….not clear which or why. But even with the businessman who translated for us it was difficult to understand what the problem was. We explained to him that the settlements have their own rules and can refuse entrance even to Israelis as we have found to our cost. 

A very well dressed and well-spoken man translated for us and then said to the above trader that we had finished with him and it was now about his business!! In those words. His self-assurance was almost funny. He had a card of an "important" businessman, BMC, …we were not sure from where. He had a permit to travel overseas through Ben Gurion for a year but wanted his wife, son and the latter's wife to go through with him, and also their baby. 

A man has two children, six and nine, who live with his wife in Jerusalem, and wants to get a birth certificate for them. The children were born in a Jerusalem hospital (Hillel?). The problem is he and his wife are divorced and he is happy to have them with her. He evidently wants them to have an Israeli birth certificate. We put him in touch with Tamir Blank which he did and will make an appointment with them. 

We contacted St. Ives, Bethlehem, about a man from Gaza who has been working in Beit Shemesh for some time and now finds himself "prevented". They gave us the number of Gisha who they said could help him. 

A man came trying to find his son who had been arrested the previous night and he did not know where they had taken him. The family also had five telephones taken from them. Hanna Barag said that they should simply buy new ones as they would never see them again. I wonder what members of the IDF have found themselves the proud owners of new phones. It is shocking. There is a vision in years to come of a room being opened and all the "lost" telephones of the Palestinians being shown there in their full glory. Those which did not find "new owners”, of course. Sheer theft.