Bethlehem. Tuesday PM, 17-1-06 Observers: Yael I., Ruth O. and Ilana D. (reporting)From 2:00 till 5:30 PMAt the entrance to the Tunnel Road cars were checked: no queue, nodetainees. In Al Khadr an army jeep was parked on the slope of the roadleading to the schools from the West. It was extremely busy and as we wereabout to park along the curb, after having delivered a paid fine from Hayato a man who had been waiting for us, a (blue) police van approached and wewere told to move. As it was very crowded we asked him where he suggested wepark, but he had no solution. He summoned the driver sitting in a car infront of us – the man who had just been given Haya’s receipt so that hecould retrieve his papers – and told him that he was giving him a ticket forparking on the curb. We asked for his name (Avi Elimelech) – number of thecar 22769. Ruth successfully begged him to forgive the poor man and theofficer let him go and left.In Al Arroub the newly erected chicken wire fence serves electionpropaganda.Abu Nassim had visited his daughter in Amman during Eid Al Adha. He told usthat they had taken a cab at 5:00 AM in the morning from Beit Ummar, changedtaxis in Al Khadr, waited for a long time in Wadi Nar and at the AllenbyBridge and had arrived at 4:00 PM in Amman. The way back also took an entireday.A lot of cars were parked outside the Etzion DCL, but most people exited aswe entered and had been given a slip of paper summoning them to returnanother day, since the machine, which produces magnetic cards, was broken.We gave them the tel. number of the office so they would be able to callbefore applying again. A young well-dressed man had been summoned to come tothe police at 4:00 PM. All his papers had been confiscated that morning andhe would only be able to drive that day. Maher was called, but was in Hebron(complaining of the cold). The Etzion Police was called and it turned outthat this was where the man had to go (but no one had told him). Here tooour presence proved helpful. Genady, the investigator, had ‘accused’ him ofhaving forged number plates and licenses. An elderly policeman instructed usto keep mum and not to irritate him. In the end his insurance and temporaryPalestinian vehicle documents proved to be in order.After our failed attempt on the way South we entered Al Kahdr on our wayback. The army jeep was (still?) parked overlooking the crowded entrance.There were more workers than usual, so the cabdribers had more work too.Ruth had old clothes, etc. to give to the vendors; they were amazed that shewanted no money from them. When we returned to the car, the army jeep hadleft.The earthmoving at the Beit Jalla turn-off is continuing apace.