Bethlehem. Tuesday , 6-9-05, from 3:00 till 6:00 PM Observers: Yael I., Ruth O. and Ilana D. (reporting)Beit Ummar, DCL Etzion, CP 300No army presence at the entrance to the tunnel road, nor near Al Khader.We first proceeded to Beit Ummar to deliver a huge stack of Haya’s documents to Abu Nassim. He appeared a little overworked and tense. Haya later confirmed that indeed it involves a lot of work for him and she only prays and hopes he will not give up. A driving-school teacher had accumulated almost 3,000 Sh. in fines and could not get his license, thus no work!A huge crowd as we had not seen for many months awaited us at the Etzion DCL. Has the closure finally been lifted? Maher, the policeman again had changed his work schedule and will not be around until next Sunday. People complained that nothing had moved for more than an hour. Azhar didn’t answer the phone, Moti told us he had been there in the morning and was no longer on the spot and that Azhar was at a lecture. The people would have to wait patiently. Which was indeed what they were doing. At some point Azhar returned our call and stated that the computers were down and that he would personally see to their repair or else come out to apologize to the crowds. Within ten minutes things started moving. The quota for merchants was up. None of them had their permits extended. One of them said: “No work, no peace” and ‘if we have no work and no food, we may start having thoughts’.A doctor living in Jerusalem and working in Beit Jalla, in possession of a permit until November, was sent back at the Tunnel CP and told to get an updated version of the permit at the DCL. He was refused on the grounds that the old one was still valid. A man who works for the Lutheran Church has been refused a magnetic card on security grounds. Last month he visited Germany; there were no security impediments for his leaving and returning. He was told to appeal the decision. Meanwhile the queue was quickly shrinking and almost disappeared. Azhar appeared on the roof to inform us (shouting down) that he personally had asked for an additional 2000 permits for merchants. The Minister of Defense apparently issues these (sic!). He promised to call the CP at the tunnels to instruct them to honor all permits for medical staff. In time for closing time all cases had been dealt with.At CP 300 we saw some tourist buses. There were no cars waiting to get into Bethlehem and no pedestrians. We saw no detainees. Har Homa is growing.