Duration: 14:00 PM  till 17:20 PM.

General situation: the Palestinian commemoration day "Nakbah" (Disaster) had just passed. In the Occupied territories, in particular at the northern border demonstrations had happened. On the Arab side 12 people were shot to death. Many were arrested. On the Arab and the Israeli side a lot of people  were left wounded.

On the morning of May 16  the speaker in the radio had said that all checkpoints are going to be closed. Only by humanitarian reasons some permits would be going to be given .

Etzion DCL: when we were arriving at 15:10 PM only 2 private cars and two yellow cabs  were parked on the parking space. The hall was empty. But slowly some people dropped in. Five  were left in immediately. They and the soldier in charge disappeared and others had to wait. Two people came at 15:20 PM. One wanted to  apply for a permit which would allow him to visit  his wife and  a newborn baby in the hospital of Augusta Victoria. The other one was his friend who wanted to help him. To help these two to get their permission  – Avital called the Mattak.

Their answer: " in 10 minutes time somebody will come." 

It needed some more time , but the soldier arrived and the two men and a priest with some accompanier were left in.

A young guy with very friendly eyes was waiting for the Shabbak. After he waited for about an hour an officer from the blue police arrived and took him with a police car to where ever.

At 16:20 PM there were 7 people left , some waiting for a magnetic card, others for a permit. But no soldiers were around. I called the Mattak. Three people transferred the call from one person to the other, always claiming that they could not understand me. But my cellular phone and my voice were o.k. Perhaps I was too polite? Then Avital called them and spoke fast Hebrew, loud and energetic. Voila- that helped. A soldier arrived and let all the seven in.  If they got their permits – we don't know. We had to leave.  

Beit Ummar: this place was mentioned in the news about demonstrations of Palestinians and clashes with the army. We went there in order to see what was going on.

There was one army car left, but in general it seemed to be quiet. we saw a lot of cars and cabs parked before the big refugee camp, but we could not find out why.