Bethlehem and surroundings, Sunday, August 7, AMObservers: Sylvia P, Ofra B (reporting), Chana A (translator)6:55 CP 300: Closure (supposedly until after the disengagement, anyhow “who cares?”…) Very few individuals cross over to the Jerusalem side. A group of tourists from South-East Asia is waiting for transportation to go north and are picked up by a minibus. Quiet. A few cars are going in the direction of Bethlehem. A BP officer, Z, talks to us, politely. Not much work to do; would like to stay at this location for when the CP moves to its new location, further southward, the innovations there will make life , i.e. the inspection, only more complicated.7:25 Al Khader: Quiet here too; relatively little movement of pedestrians or cars. I learned this week that El Khader, the Green One, is a nickname for Elija the Prophet, the one who makes for Green, Fertility, and Agriculture. One can take this whichever way one wants.We are approached and advise those who need entry permits for health reasons or have fines to settle with the police (if not today then tomorrow when Haya and Ada come) and we meet our friend Ahmad Jubran who has a hard time figuring out his position vis-a-vis his former employer in Jerusalem and we send him to Kav le’Oved.8:10 Ezyon DCO: some 10 people are waiting in the shed. We are optimistically delighted to see that many people have already been called to the window (so soon? It’s only 8:10!) but our euphoria turns into dismay when we see that the four people who have been waiting at window #1 are still there 40 minutes later. Turns out that there is a breakdown in the computers of the military in the entire country. In the meantime, the crowd has grown to some thirty people. Window #2 now receives people too and serves the public. Our usual task – handling and advising those who ask for the removal of their Shabak stain – takes up our time.A Palestinian who has been living in Finland for years and who entered Israel with an Israeli visa in his Finnish passport, is trying to get a permit for his pregnant wife to leave the country via the Ben Gurion airport. The couple already has two little girls, but the wife does not have a Finnish passport yet, the husband can’t leave from Amman since he does not have a visa to Jordan! We advise them to turn to Yael S, who deals with medical cases. She tries to help them, but is told that pregnancy is not a medical case. But she doesn’t give up, pushes appropriate buttons and we leave hoping the wife will be allowed to leave together with the rest of her family. (Since this report is late in being sent, we now know that indeed Yael’s efforts bore fruit and the wife was allowed to leave the country via the BG airport!)We leave around 9:45. The computers have not been repaired. the soldiers tell everyone that they have no idea when this will happen. At around 10:30 we call Azhar and are told that the computers are working.The feeling of those who have to wait, day in, day out, in line for the heartless bureaucrats to grant them the most elementary freedoms, of movement, filters down to us too and makes our hearts feel heavy. When will this end….Outside the shed we meet our friend, the attorney Fadel Achdush, for who we supply the weekly postal service of sending his petitions to Beth El.—