Bethlehem vicinity, Thursday, 20.7.06, AMObservers: Ruth E., Aviva W., Rama Y. (reporting)06:30, Bethlehem CP: An extremely quiet morning, no noisy groups crowding on the road in front of the CP waiting for transportation – there is a complete closure; no one is let through except for “humanitarian” cases. 07:40, Ezyon DCL: About 60 people. Numbers were distributed at exactly 08:00, but, probably due to the “situation”, extra security measures were taken, and the officer didn’t step out to the square in front of the DCL, as usual, but stood behind the closed grille, at the soldiers’ entrance to the DCL, and numbers were handed over through the grille. It was quite a sight. People started to get out of the DCL at 08:40. Magnetic cards were delivered only to thirty year olds and over. A man, just four months away from the longed for age, hung around in the vain hope that something would happen, and age limitation would change. He had been to the DCL the previous day and had been told that it may change in one or two weeks, and still he came today and waited. Work permits were not distributed, though even having the permit in hand, Palestinians would not be able to enter Israel anyhow. A woman with a permit to go to Jordan came to apply for an exit permit for her seven year old daughter. She had all the necessary documents signed and stamped, but had been refused in the DCL, no reason given. As a rule, no one answers the phone inside the DCL. So we called the IDF “Humanitarian” Center, hoping that they would be able to make the contact. We made I don’t know how many calls, and finally it was suggested that the woman re-enter the DCL after our contact from the “Humanitarian” center had talked to someone in the DCL. She did, and came out ten minutes later, application rejected, no reason given; or, possibly, reason was given, mumbled in Hebrew, no one bothering to see that it is translated into Arabic so that the woman understand what it was all about, and evidently, she was not assertive enough. So we started all over again. At a certain point we were told that the woman was abroad… that there were serious reasons for not letting the daughter joining her (A seven year old? We asked; isn’t it a bit early?), that the daughter should have a passport, that the application had been rejected because of the closure and so on and so forth, but those were just speculations on the part of our contact from the “Humanitarian” Center, because he himself didn’t get a definite answer from the DCL. He even suggested that the woman go to Jericho to purchase a traveling ticket, and then come back to the DCL and present it as a confirmation of something or other, and, yes, that she re-re-enter the DCL. She did, but this time, we explained to her that if refused, she should ask for the reason. By then (09:45), our colleague, Hanna B., was involved in this merry-go-round odyssey, and she did manage to solve the mystery: the application had indeed been refused because of the closure, and, Sunday, Inshallah, if the closure is over, the woman would be able to have an exit permit for her daughter, too.