Bethlehem and surroundings, Tuesday, 23.8.05, PMObservers: Amira G. Hagit S. (reporting)A short watch 16.00-17.00At Beit Omar we gave Abu Nisiem the reports and both there and back and at Tantur saw no army presence.DCO Etsion Two people complained that, although they had the necessary permits they could not enter Jerusalem because of the closure. Maher offered us coffee which we refused. Neither Moti or Azhar were there and so we could not help a woman with small chidlren who had an El Al flight ticket for the next morning. She had made this request 10 days previously and had been told to wait till the day before the flight. Shlomiet S. has done her best but no one has promised anything. They only explained that they had been working all night and if the permit arrives they will receive it 5 hours before the flight.CP 300 There are 5 detainees, one is being questioned. The border policeman guarding them was new and spoke to us willingly. He had detained two illegal workers and their employer. He suggested we waited for the captain who was on his way and would explain everything to us. We refused when we heard that the captain was Shai.The woman who wanted to fly received her ticket after 21.00 and after innumerable phone calls. Two years ago she had the same problem and waited from 9.00 to 19.00. At least this time she did not have to wait at the DCO and the DCO phoned her to come and take it when ready.The story is as follows. 10 days ago she applied and the application was delayed by the Secret Service until 15.00 today. After they had confirmed the application it was sent to Beit-El (I do not know who was responsible for this) and there it was delayed until 19.00 when everyone had left the office. The humanitarian centre only consented to deal with the affair when I managed to contact Chen. He always deals with requests even after hours as much as he can. He went to check and found that the fax had been sent to DCO Ezion where he was told that the request had been granted by Azhar who was there, and said it would take some time to print it. It took about 15 minutes. So this woman had had 11 nerve wracking days even though from her previous experience she was used to it.So both Shlomiet and I spent several hours to see that the matter was dealt with and our telephone bill has also gone up considerably.