Bethlehem, Wednesday afternoon, August 24Observers: Daniella G., Mor, Ronit S. (reporting)At the right turn from Derekh Hevron toward Gilo, across from Checkpoint 300:A border policeman and two female soldiers detain three Palestinian workers with no entry permits who were on their way back from Jerusalem to Hebron. The Palestinians, who seemed in their 40s and 50s, filled out the standard forms and headed back to Hebron. They said there is a closure due to disengagement and it’s unclear when it would be lifted.On our way back we saw the policeman and two soldiers standing in the same place (near the barbershop there). DCO Etzion:About 10 Palestinian Catholics came to attain permits to enter Jerusalem on Sunday – Santa Maria holiday, celebrated on Mount of Olives. Several young boys (aged 18-20) from Beit Jala were not given permits, and they stood and waited for the DCO chief to come outside and speak with them. A woman whose husband has a permit to enter Jerusalem was also not given a permit. Two Palestinians told us that the day before the DCO was handing out permits for Sunday’s holiday to anyone asking. Suddenly on Wednesday they refused everyone. One man who did get permits was a church administrator who received permits for Sunday to some 10 people he had listed as church teachers. We also tried to assist a young man who had asked for a magnetic card and was refused. He said he was first called to speak with one of the DCO’s captains. Following the talk he was told he is refused by the GSS. We showed him and his mother the form from Machsom Watch plastered on the wall that explains how to send a letter out to a senior Israeli security official when you fall into this category. They said thank you, smiled, and left without writing down the details.Beit Jala:Many cars passing, most of them unchecked.Checkpoint 300:Three Palestinian workers without permits and two Israeli cabbies who drove them were sitting at the detention point outside the checkpoint (workers were sitting inside the hut, cabbies outside). In turn, they entered the room and were interrogated by two investigators. The commander of the detention point, a border policeman, said they had been there for about two hours. He said that cab drivers, if they had been caught before, could be detained on the spot and taken by blue police.He also said that at that detention point there are always two investigators in the morning, two in the afternoon, and sometimes also in the evening. He said they interrogate anyone caught by border police in southern Jerusalem, and when there is a lot going on in other parts of the city people are brought here too. He said there are people in investigation practically all hours of the day.On the Bethlehem side of the checkpoint there were a dozen other detainees, who were released in less than 30 minutes.Another group of detainees on the Jerusalem side of the checkpoint: Several buses of American Jews waiting to enter Rachel’s Tomb were forced to wait for a military escort. During our amusing conversation with them one asked us to take care of the “detention of women, children and the elderly” at the checkpoint. Needless to say their problems were solved shortly after, without our intervention.