Bethlehem area, Wednesday PM, 23.11.05Observers: DG and MB (reporting)At the beginning of the Tunnel Road, southbound, was a rolling CP, and a queue of cars was forming. We were waved through. We stopped to ask: “Why did you wave us through? Who do you stop?” “Arabs”, we are told.On our way through the Tunnels CO we noticed that there was a Jerusalem-bound bus waiting for passenger inspection. We did not stop.Ezyon CP It was apparently reinstated after the terrorist attack nearby, and now operates 24 hours a day. The rules seem to be thus: No private Palestinian vehicles are allowed to pass Ezyon CP, southbound. People can pass in public transits. What, we ask, if someone lives, say,in Beit Omar, and wants to go home in his car? “Maybe through Beit Fajar”, we are told. This makes sense neither to us nor to the soldier who is talking to us. The checks and passage were swift and business-like.Ezyon DCO Hardly anyone there. We were told that most people come in the morning. But fewer people come since the Palestinian DCL was given some of the responsibilities. One person we talked to complained that the Palestinian DCL works with bribes and corruption. The helpful officer M. will be released from the army in January.Bethlehem CP The old CP 300 has been dismantled, and the new CP is a few hundred meters south of it. It is spic and span, shining and new, with parking lots and electronic gates, cameras on each passing booth. As the checks of both cars and pedestrians are inaccessible, it is obvious that we will not be able to observe any of the goings on without prearranging this with the authorities. But we did meet superintendent R., who gave us his phone number. He asked that it be used just by MW, not the Palestinians. He is the commander in charge — a civilian policeman. The soldiers at the CP will be Military Police, not Border Police.