Bethlehem 7/7/2004 Watchers: Rachel M., Maya B., Ayelet E. (reporting), a guest 6:45, checkpoint 300. The CP is very empty. The only people on foot are settlers, crossing towards Jerusalem and jumping into a car that awaits them on the other side. A few other cars arrive and cross efficiently. As we are leaving, we see that the Women in Green [a right winged organization that took upon itself the task of “protecting” soldiers at the CPs against MachsomWatch women] have arrived. 7:15, El Khader. No army presence. The market is relatively empty. We talk to several locals about the bad work situation and hear complaints about the container. 7:45. Ezion DCO is supposed to open at 8:00. It doesn’t. We call the commander of the DCO, Arlev. At 8:15, his mobile phone is turned off. Maya yells up to the soldiers on the second floor, and they tell her not tell them how to work. We keep calling commander Arlev; his phone is off, off, off, busy, impossible to reach him. Meanwhile the soldiers allow the first 4 Palestinians in, a good 10 minutes before any of them come down. So many problems: A woman back from a trip to Italy forgot some baggage on the plane and needs a permit to go to Lod airport to pick it up. She arrived at the DCO without the form that is needed for all services and must pick it up at a different place. A man whose magnetic card was taken. Another man from Jerusalem is trying to get a permit to visit his daughter. He was randomly given a traffic ticket though he owns no car, and he must pay the ridiculous fine before he can even think about receiving a permit… And more and more and more. We had to leave at 8:45. We passed out phone numbers of the Moked (Center for the Defense of the Individual), and left extraordinarily frustrated as bureaucracies designed not to work are one of the more infuriating things in the world.