Bethlehem & Southern CPs, Wednesday PM, 15.3.06Observers: Laura S, Daniela G, Maya BH (reporting)It is Shushan Purim, and a closure is in effect. Indeed, we saw more soldiers than Palestinians throughout our shift.Tunnel CP: Traffic seemed to flow unhindered.Ezyon CP: Traffic seemed to flow unhindered.Ezyon DCO, 15:00. A father was waiting for his son and daughter-in-law, who had gone into the army base for a GSS interrogation at 2pm. Their summons — surprise surprise — were for 9am. Another younger man was summoned for 1500, and was still waiting. A young woman with impeccable English arrived to receive the permit she had applied for on Sunday. She was told then to come today for it. But today anybody who could do anything about it was not responding to our phone calls. Finally she was sent to the Palestinian DCL for it. Who knows if it was really there, or she was sent on another wild goose chase. She accepted it with fortitude, and left. We wanted to help her by calling the Palestinian DCL, but didn’t have the number. Does anyone have it? The Israeli DCO didn’t have the number.Beit Jalla CP: Inoperative. But blue police were stopping civilian cars for their own kind of checks.Al Khader: The usual. Shabby, stoic, heroic, pathetic.CP300 (“Rachel passage”): Very little traffic. The few pedestrians who attempted to pass did so quite rapidly. All were headed for Bethlehem. We saw none in the other direction, but did not linger there. The soldiers were civil enough — to them and to us. It manages somehow to be less depressing than the new Qalandiya terminal. At least the soldiers and the pedestrians can hear each other without recourse to an intercom, and there is no “Big Brother” watching over them.