Bethlehem and surroundings, Monday, 3.7.2006, AfternoonObservers: Shlomit S. Yael S. (reporting) Another report of a very long shift 13:00 – 18:00 We got to Ezyon DCO at 13:30 and left for Bet-Omar before 15:00, came back after 16:00. Ezyon DCO: No changes were made, only it got hotter: from the toilets the usual stink… and there was no way to avoid it because one must go near them in order to get into the DCO. The ventilators were working, but they did not relieve the unbearable heat. The horrible loudspeakers were silent most of the time. The water-cooler gave out lukewarm water in a slow stream. Magnetic Cards: Today they gave out numbers three times: in the morning, noon time, and afternoon. When we arrived there were 40 people applying for permits, or magnetic cards, or people sumoned by the GSS, 20 of them stood in front of the carousel in an area of about one and a half square meters!!!Almost all the people who applied for magnetic cards were taken care of, GSS restricted were turned to Silvia or Phiras. We did not succeed in taking care of a GSS restricted man who was 93 years old… But he was there, hoping to get a magnetic card which would perhaps enable him to visit his sons or daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren in Nablus, Jennin or Tul-Karem.It was a very long shift because of two requests that had to go to the police, to the health services, to the soldier at the window, to the commander, and to the police spokesman…A couple and their son, who was hit in a car accident by an Israeli driver, asked to go to the police at Rus-El-Amud in order to get the accident’s inquest, so that they could sue the insurance. First step – we tried to find out if it was possible to deliver the complaint or get the information at Ezyon police station; well, only in Rus-El-Amud police station handles accidents in this whole area!!! Shlomit spoke to Maher who said that Eyal should take care of it… we sent them to the window.When we came back at 16:00 we found them, to our surprise, with the request in hand, and on it was written: Refused! The above mentioned was released from the hospital. We tried to call Eyal but he was not there, his deputy did not answer the phone, and nobody could help us. So we tried to call the humanitarian line, the administration’s spokesman and the spokesman in Tel-Aviv. The administration was the first to answer and said: “they told me that a permit was not needed in order to get to Rus-El-Amud police because there was an access from the Palestinians side”. I explained to him that Rus-El-Amud and its police are located in “United Jerusalem”, so a permit is necessary. Later Eyal called from DCO, I explained the problem, and he promised to take care of it. The couple and their child entered the windows’ zone for the third time today. A couple in their thirties, they hardly know how to read and write, from the Bethlehem area. They do whatever they are told to do; their lawyer told them that they have to go to Rus-El-Amud police and in order to do so they must get a permit from the DCO. They did whatever they were told. And at the end of the day they came out with the two hoped for permits. When I told them that the permit was from 5:00 until 16:00 the woman said: “but at the window they told me from 10:00 till 14:00″… The second request was of a father of a girl who was hit in a car accident and was hospitalized alternately at Hadassah and Alin. She was badly injured. The DCO returned the request before it was checked at the health center, and on it was written: “police restricted”. We turned to Maher again who explained that he did not take care of such cases, and that we should wait for Amir who will come over to us… We waited, the DCO already closed, we called again and they told us – “in a little while”… At 18:00 Eyal called and told us that we should not waste our time, the request was at Beit-El DCO, and there was no problem with the fact that the request was returned, it was possible to take care of it even without the last request, because there were former requests…. Now there is something else for me to follow up on.Apart from these there were 5 – 7 people sumoned by the GSS, most of them were there from early morning. Noam, from the humanitarian center, helped to hasten their entrance. One person who was sumoned waited 4 hours and got in and came out quickly. He turned to us scared: “the investigator was nervous and he told me to go home”. “Did he give you back the ID?” We asked, “yes, but he was nervous, what shall I do now?”, “Go home”, we said with a sad smile.Another person entered at 12:30 and did not get out until 17:30. His friends were worried. We notified the humanitarian center so that they will write down the incident, but we know that they can’t help. We were busy with permits, so we did not see if the person investigated came out, I think he did, because otherwise they would have reminded me about it.One report and another, one shift and another and the laws and the rules get stricter, and behind each report there are tens of people waiting long hours for a more normal life, these stories are almost never told.