Bethlehem. Monday PM, 24.9.07 Observers: Yael I., Ruth O., and Ilana D. (reporting) a guest Orit Y.From 2:00 till 6:00 PMSince our guest might be a potential future candidate of MW we did a little sightseeing, showing her the progress of the wall, the underneath passage to El Khader and even did some vegetable shopping in Beit Ummar. In El Aroub the watchtowers were not manned. We only saw a blue police car giving out tickets and on the way back some Border Police soldiers with many kids who had all gathered to ‘assist’ in a minor traffic accident.There were hardly any people in the spacious waiting room of the . A young man from Hebron who studies medicine in Germany and had returned home for the first time in three years had been requested upon arrival at the bridge to report at 8:00 AM to the Security Services. It was 4 PM and he was still waiting. He told us that his father used to be a well-know glassblower, now unemployed. He used to work for Rehav’am Zeevi –Yael immediately knew about him and remembered Abed working in the Ha’aretz Museum. A man whose name had been left out from the collective permit of his Church had been told to come with a letter to the DCL. He was told to return to the church. A girl soldier later told him that he would have to apply at the Palestinian DCL in Bethlehem and then the Palestinian DCL would forward the request to the Israelis. This of course will mean a delay till after the holidays. A Jewish employer entered with a worker and told Ruth: “I know you, you are Shulamith Aloni!” After he had insisted he knew her, she told him her name and he said: “You were the Principal of my school” and after his worker had entered through the turnstiles and we were left alone he began a monologue re the situation, the way the CP’s are run, the random curfews, the bureaucracy at the Ministry of Labor and continued to attack the ‘system’ which is only out to make life as miserable as possible for the Palestinians and causing also the employers to lose many work days, having to stand in lines, sending faxes, trying phone calls in vain etc. We were charmed by his rhetoric and suggested he call the hotline of the Voice of Peace for an interview. At 4:45 his worker whose palm had not responded ‘positively’ in the hand-machine, was issued with a new magnetic card and both left happily. He also explained why so many hands don’t respond to the machines` these are hands of manual workers and they get callused. On leaving Y., Ruth’s former student added: “You were a terrific principal”. The lights were turned off and the place was closed early, when we drove off we saw another Palestinian car approaching. The end of the Ramadan fast was very obvious when we exited the tunnel road. An impromptu CP had been set up next to the hitchhiking booth at a spot where we had not seen any checking for a very long time. Then across Tantur a bus was stopped and all passengers were checked. Two had to sign papers after the bus had left and were only then sent on their way. The Rachel Terminal was deserted, we had obviously come too late; people leave early because of Ramadan. Nevertheless two windows were open, some tourists came back from Bethlehem; they had no transportation. When we returned to the car a small bus pulled up and about fifty workers burst out to make a run for the terminal.