Etzion DCL, Tue 17.4.12, Afternoon
Etzion DCL, 15.00 PM: there were four taxis outside waiting for their customers who
were getting magnetic cards. One man told us that his 65 year-old father had been refused, by Security, to enter Jerusalem on Fridays for prayers. We gave him Sylvia’s phone number.
A steady stream came, all entering and seeming to exit quickly.
A taxi driver from Battir scoffed at the notice on the board about allowing everyone to go to the Jericho DCL for magnetic cards. He said he personally would do well, as a taxi driver, but why would anyone want to travel expensively all that way and possibly find crowds there? [IS ANYONE IN MACHSOM-WATCH FAMILIAR WITH THE JERICHO DCL AND THE CONDITIONS THERE? INFORMATION, PLEASE!]
A woman from Yatta arrived. A lot of heavy building equipment had been confiscated because she had ‘disobeyed an order to dismantle an unauthorized building’ . She knew no Hebrew and couldn’t understand the form she was given. There was no answer from the telephone number written there, for enquiries. A woman soldier at the DCL who answered our callreally did try to be helpful and find instructions but, in the end, it turned out that the woman did indeed need to call that phone number, but in the morning.
We had the help of an interpreter outside to explain to her carefully – and to advise that she have a Hebrew-speaker with her.
That interpreter happened to be waiting for a friend who had been ‘invited’ at 1 p.m. by Security. At his request we gave him Sylvia’s phone number, should his friend need it.
16.30. We left.