Bethlehem and vicinity, Monday 13.11.06, afternoon.Observers: Mika G, Yael R, Neta B.P (reporting) 13:30- Ezyon DCL7 people were waiting near the entrance gate to the secret services, they told us that they had arrived there at 9:30. One of them was a 16 year old boy who was ill, he was summoned for investigation. He had been waiting near the gate with his father since 9:30. We were there for about half an hour and no one was called in, we therefore phoned the Moked to report. The girl who answered wrote down the details and promised to take care of the problem. We called again after half an hour- but she hadn’t even started to do anything, afterwards she talked to the DCL that promised to do what ever it could. Suddenly a shielded white jeep arrived, while the driver was waiting for the gate to open we talked to him, he was a major, we asked him to help speed things up at the secret services. He agreed to help. After several minutes a representative of the secret service arrived at the gate and let some of those who were waiting, come in- The boy and his father remained, waiting for their turn. An Israeli woman from Rahat came to us and said that her husband had left her and ran away to the occupied territories, now he won’t pay his alimony. Her lawyer told her to go there. After some inquiries one of the workers talked to her and promised to help. When we got to the DCL there were about 20 people at the entrance. Two soldiers were handing out numbers and it only took a little while until everyone had received service. 14:40- On the main road, southern to Ezyon square, we saw a line of about 30 cars in front of a manned checkpoint. We headed south to El Arov. We didn’t see any jeeps or soldiers on our way. When we headed back, there weren’t any cars standing at the checkpoint. 14:55- Back at the Ezyon DCL:The sick teenager and his father were still waiting for the secret services. 15:15- Rahel’s Passage (BEthlehem CP);When we arrived there things were pretty quiet and people passed after going through an inspection. Two counters were open, they were serving people that were heading to both sides. A teenager about 14-15 years old needed to get into Israel, but the solider wouldn’t allow it. He was from Beit Tzfafe but he only had a copy of his ID. The solider told him to wait for ten minutes, but even after half an hour, she wouldn’t let him pass. At once, at 15:40 a large group of men, returning from work had arrived. The place became very crowded, people were pushing and yelling, and there were still only two active counters. We started making some calls. We had two numbers, that of the BP commander and that of the company commander, but both were wrong. Yamit, the spokeswoman of the BP commander, told us that the BP is on longer responsible for Rahel’s Passage, the Olives Passage and Qalandia CP. These passages are from now on under the responsibility of the commander of the passage control at the civil police force. She referred us to Asi, the head of the commander’s bureau at the county, we called him but he was on holiday. We were told to speak to Dvir Brali, the commander of the passages bureau. We thought it might be best to speak with him about the way these terminals function, and to tell him that during rush hours, more counter should always be open. The current situation is outrages- it appears that no effort is been made to ease the pressure during rush hours, and that everything is arbitrary. Surprisingly, twice a day, a large number of people need to pass simultaneously. The teenager who was waiting had given up and disappeared, and we left frustrated. The numbers we received:Yamit- Jerusalem BP: 02-5898404Asi- Head of the county bureau, commander of the passages unit: 02- 5391100, 02- 5391200A direct line to Asi: 02- 5391114, 0507- 555238