DCO Ezion, El Khader, Bethlehem 1/9/2004 Observers: Rina H., Rahel W. (reporting) We arrived at DCO Ezion before 4:00 p.m. and checked out the times the windows were open. The signs said the following: “Police window will be closed from 1.9.04 until 5.9.04 Will reopen on 5.9.04 at 1:00 p.m.”The other windows are open Sunday through Wednesday, 8:00-17:30; Thursday, 8:00-16:00.When we got there, there were few people waiting. The fans were off, but the people said they had been on before. The place was filthy, but the water was working. Three windows were open, but everyone went to one particular window, because M. was there. M. also tried to help us with a woman whom we had met the previous week, who has been trying to get into Jerusalem (she has a magnetic card) to work at a church so that she can support her sick husband and four children. He told her what she had to do, and hopefully, it will work. Another woman who was there who had an appointment for her husband to have a CT at Hadassah hospital on September 1st, but her entry permit was from September 2nd until September 5th. She called the doctor from Hadassah for rescheduling, and he wanted to fax the new appointment to the DCO, but when we tried to get through to get the DCO fax number, we were confronted by three singularly mean soldiers who made a big joke out of the whole thing. “What makes you think we have a fax here?” The whole episode was terribly funny in their eyes. Does anyone know the fax number of the DCO in Ezion? If so, that is information we should have.We gave the woman Dahlia Bassa’s number (she was already gone) and told her to call her tomorrow.At El Khader, there was a mob of people and vehicles. There were border police parked on the hill above, but none present at the passage itself. Bethlehem. Traffic moved quite quickly from Bethlehem to Jerusalem but was held up for over an hour going from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. When we questioned an officer who was trying to get through to the checkpoint, but who was himself held up by the waiting cars, what rational there was for allowing cars to go in just one direction for over an hour, he said that there was an alert. We said, so if there is an alert, aren’t you more concerned about cars coming into Jerusalem. He was very pleasant, but patronizing, and insisted that there are good reasons for everything the army does!!!No detainees anyplace that we saw. After a change of guard, the cars started moving toward Bethlehem.