Bethlehem and surroundings, Monday, 19.6.2006, AfternoonObservers: Shlomit S. Yael S. (reporting) Sometime the difficulty is in the reality.Ezyon DCO -12:00: Magnetic cards:Almost all the requests for magnetic cards have been taken care of; no reasons were given to the ones who were refused. We complained about it. Not everybody who took a number was waiting at the GSS: the Palestinians said that there was somebody with 10 numbers for sale. The man did not dare to confront us… They call it speculation. A few minutes past 13:00 the lieutenant and his helper emerged, and gave out new numbers. I had the opportunity to stand near by and see the ceremony… A Palestinian had written the names, and read them one by one, A. checked the IDs to see that the age was right, and then the numbers were given. It was very quick. Medical permits:A sick woman was there with her son in order to get a permit. Why did she have to be there? Why could not somebody of her family photocopy her ID and come with it? It is possible and allowed and done. The sick person does not have to be the one presenting the request; anybody of his family can do it for him. The permit is for the day after tomorrow, so would it not be better to give the documents today, and come back tomorrow? Another person arrived with an appointment to St-John hospital for his daughter for tomorrow. The permit was for his mother who will escort the child to the operation. He was very upset because he could not get the permit on the same day. I tried to help to hasten the treatment… Meanwhile we waited. It is not certain that an early request will be answered in a reasonable time… But why didn’t he arrive two days ago or even before that? Work:Immediately after we got out of the car we met a Palestinian, an employer, who complained that his situation was never so difficult. Only 10 of his 17 workers got permits. They work in the settlements… and in spite of it they didn’t get permits. DCL:The toilets really stink… For some reason the soldier at the shed decided put on very loud oriental music, and only after our begging, it stopped. These loudspeakers should never be operated. The people waiting for permits were standing by the carousel in the hot sun. The fans were not working until we asked for it… Some of the clerks where on patrol, and this made things difficult.The tunnels CP:To our surprise we saw a Red-Cross ambulance detained. The driver got an order from the head of the Red-Cross to go to Jerusalem. It was not coordinated with the Health Center. In the ambulance there was a man with a broken leg (later it turned out that he was also a cancer patient). They were from Hebron. I tried to tell him to go to the nearest hospital at Bethlehem or Beit-Jella and then, if necessary, be transferred. But he preferred to wait under the hot sun for directions from the Red-Cross head, while the patient and his son were in the ambulance.