Bethlehem. Tuesday PM, 31-1-06 Observers: Yael I. and Ilana D. (reporting) From 2:00 till 6:30 PMA day with glorious weather, but a most depressing shift. In Beit Ummar we delivered medicines to Yvonne’s friend and brought the usual paid fines to Abu Nassim. We promised to pay a fine of a thousand Shekels which was due to-morrow at the latest. The road nearby is being fixed and traffic is allowed to pass in one direction. We were appalled to see the big yellow ‘apartheid road’ sign at the Etzion CP which allows Israelis and those ‘qualifying under the Law of Return’ to pass. The soldiers told us that one morning they woke up to find it, but they are letting everyone pass. Atta from Wallaje called to inform us that two houses had been demolished at noon without prior notification. A young son of one of the house owners had been taken away by the Border Police after they had finished the bulldoze job. There was a difference of opinion on whether he had tried to interfere or not. Meir Margalit was on the spot and tried to trace the boy via the Jerusalem police. We called the lawyer who has been involved for a long time, but he told us that the people had employed another lawyer and that yesterday surveyors from the Interior Ministry had measured the land and told them that the demolition was imminent. Apparently the 18 months’ grace period was over. Then we called the office of the commander of the Jerusalem Border Police who was extremely friendly and helpful. He said that the boy had probably been taken to the Moriah Police Station (Wallaje being located within greater Jerusalem) and his advice was to get a good lawyer. It turns out the lawyer the family had employed was Dakhleh, but he never returned our calls.The Ezyon DCL is closed for renovations until further notice. A handwritten sign in Arabic is placed over the toilet. Some people tried nevertheless to get service from the guard at the gate behind the waiting area. The duration of the renovation varies between two weeks and three months. Meanwhile all magnetic cards, which lapsed, are automatically valid for another two weeks. We met a woman who remembered us from last year when she also needed permission to get to the airport. Everyone is supposed to apply ONLY to the Palestinian DCO in Bethlehem from where the requests are sent (faxed?) for approval and then returned there. I remember reporting similar procedures at the Palestinian DCO in Abu Dis some time ago. A Bethlehem woman with a bundle of documents, accompanied by a German girl who lives at Saint George in Jerusalem, needs permission to attend the opening of an exhibition of her paintings (‘Emotions’) next to the Dormition Abbey Wednesday evening at 7:30 PM – we are all invited. She teaches art at the University in Bethlehem and the German girl is the curator of her exhibition and will host a show of an Israeli painter( a woman who lived seven years with the Bedouin) next month. She had handed in her request ten days ago at the Palestinian DCO and never received a reply. Today Mr. Cesar of the Interior Ministry’s Dept. for Christian Communities had given her a recommendation for the DCO and assured her that this would give her instant service. They had already been waiting for two hours and no one had taken the papers. We tried to call Eyal and Motti in vain. Amir replied and initially refused to come outside, he is not allowed to, since he was not protected and in any case unable to issue any permit. However, in the end he came to the gate and took the documents. He tried to be of assistance and when he returned the papers, he promised to call in the morning as soon as he had a positive reply. A high-ranking officer left through the gate with his car and stopped to answer our questions. The yellow ‘apartheid sign’ we saw and another one in the vicinity are not supposed to be there and will be removed this week. There are similar ones, for instance near Jaba, which will remain in place. As of this coming Friday all Palestinian vehicles will only be allowed in and out of Jerusalem via CP 300 (we refuse to call it ‘Rachel Passage’). The purpose of the construction near the Tunnel CP is to widen the road into a ten-lane highway (from his and our money, he claimed). When the new DCL reopens it will be issuing the biometric identification cards (“Basel”), ‘where Herzl founded the Palestinian State’, he joked. We took the two women to Beit Jalla where they climbed the earth mounds to grab a cab to Bethlehem.At CP 300 we saw three Palestinians who had been caught without papers near Tantur almost two hours ago. We promised to inquire. The commander of the terminal told us in no uncertain terms that they were ‘none of his business’. He reluctantly permitted us to ‘observe’ outside the turnstiles after we had first been told by the soldiers that we should leave the premises immediately. We tried to call some numbers on our list, but no one was willing to assist. A group of tourists exited via the turnstiles, ‘thrilled’ with their visit to Bethlehem and Beit Sahur. The guard at the BP-base, where the CP used to be, tried to find out for us where the men might get their documents back, but was unable to help either. He assured us that they would not be left all night outside. We gave the men our tel. number and after ten minutes were informed that they had been released. At 7:30 PM we heard from Atta that the boy was back and had indeed been taken to the Moriah Police Station.