Morning

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07/11/2002
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At 6:30 there were two Border Police Jeeps and about fifteen Palestinians,one with a car without a permit, all held up below the gate of Tanturacross from the greengrocer where we parked. Since last week people with blue ID-cards are no longer allowed into Bethlehem. A soldier hinted that there might be some monkey-business with persons living at fake addresses on the Jerusalem side of the checkpoint and only those with specific permission (health workers, etc.) are allowed to cross back and forth freely. On the way back to the car most of those who had been held up returned and walked along with us – they apparently had found another roundabout way and one of them said to me apologetically: Sorry, but I have to feed my family. We were told thatsoldiers had caught a person who tried to flee and beat him near the Mosque. We proceeded all the way down to the Mosque in Beit Tzefafa and the person who had been beaten was pointed out to us. He said that the soldier had taken his permit, but did not want to complain to the Moked. In El-Khadr we first saw about six busloads of people, which had come from Hebron, some with green and some with orange numberplates. The passage is along a ridge of a rather deep ditch. Many people were carrying heavy loads and some brought buckets with olives. There were tens of yellow taxis on the other side waiting for passengers to Ramallah, Abu Dis and Jericho. One very experienced driver said that the worst checkpoint is the one of Wadi Nar, about a fifteen-minute drive from the El-Khadr crossing. He claimed that border policeniks just park a jeep over the road and block the passage, but one never knowswhen. Now with Ramadan people are allowed to eat at five minutes to five,but cars are held up until much later, just for spite. He was told to complain to the Moked, but said that he had tried to do so once, but had been investigated for about 15 minutes over the phone. He had to give too many details and of course was unable to supply any information on the name and number of the soldier in question, so he had given up.He begged us to come along one day and although he is sure that the soldierswill behave differently once they spot us, he can bring us to a lookout point from where we can observe the state of affairs. We were debating whether next week we should come with two cars, so that those who have to get back to work in time can return while the two others proceed to Wadi Nar.