Bethlehem and Surroundings—March 4, 05 AMObservers: Orit Y., Varda R., Tamar A. (reporting)9:00 Bethlehem CP 300: When we arrive at the CP on of the BP policemen asks us how we are and tells us that everything is fine. Immediately afterwards he demands that we move away from the CP to an observation point from which it is difficult to see what is happening in the area they are checking pedestrians. Later the commander of the CP arrives and allows us to stand wherever we wish. He asks us if he can help in some way and offers us coffee. We decline.Vehicles in both directions pass usually with no problem. Pedestrian traffic is meager and quite a few people are sent back, among them an elderly man who leans on a cane, an old woman who tries to argue with the commander of the CP and finally by passes the CP via a side path the goes around the CP. And another group of women that later tries their luck through Tan Tur. From the direction of Jerusalem arrives a woman who is about 65 yrs. old with heavy bundles on her head and two bags in her hands, and asks the policeman to let her pass through the vehicle route (which is much shorter than the round about pedestrian path). He insists that she go through the longer pedestrian path. She curses everyone, the soldiers, Abu Mazen and goes through the longer path. She is allowed to pass through that way. Jews who wish to pray at Rachel’s tomb pass the CP without being checked. During the time they get on the bus all the traffic is stopped. One of the women returning from her prayers (at Rachel’s Tomb) approaches us and thanks us for safeguarding human rights and that she hopes that we also guarded them last Friday in Tel Aviv when 5 Jews were killed. Also there is a new phenomenon: Tourists returning to Bethlehem. During the two hours we were there five to eight groups passed, some of them in their own buses and some who passed on foot from a bus that let them off at the CP to another bus that picked them up on the other side. An Israeli tourist guide arrives with a single tourist who passes on foot and then meets a Palestinian tourist guide. The Israeli came up to the pedestrian checking point and is checked twice (a body search) before he is allowed to return. He tells us that last week he almost hit a BP who treated a tourist who he had brought to the CP crudely. “Everything I build during days of work is ruined at the CP”, he says. He thinks that the CP commander should meet with tourist guides and find some easier arrangement for tourists to pass the CP.The main problem of this morning is the case of two detainees. One is a resident of Beit Zafafa who has a blue ID, the other, his brother –in –law, originally from Beit Shahur, who returned two years ago to live with his family in BEit Zafafa. Although he has been married to an Israeli woman for 18 years he did not receive a blue (Israeli) ID and the issue of the children’s citizenship is stuck in the ministry of interior. He has an ID from the Palestinian Authority that apparently confirms the fact that he lives in Beit Zafafa, but this document is not relevant to the police. It seems that to them he is an illegal resident. In any case, both these men were caught earlier in the morning near the Malha shopping mall by a BP jeep, their IDs were taken away from them and they were ordered to arrive at CP 300 and wait for the investigator. When the man from Beit Zafafa complains that he has been waiting for over an hour the commander of the CP does not allow him to approach him and shouts at him crudely :”stand over there!” To us he explains that he is not responsible for this case and that it’s hard enough for him to maintain proper functioning of his small staff. We call the commander of the area and of CP 300 and we are promised that this case will be looked into. Meanwhile the policeman orders to two men to stand at a distance from each other and forbids them from talking to each other. The door of the caravan opens and it turns out that an investigator in civilian clothes (Shabac?) is sitting there and he demands that we move away from the door because this man is suspected of committing a crime and we are disturbing the investigation. Rain starts to fall and because the two detainees are not allowed to stand near each other, one of them must stand outside the sheltering roof in the rain. Eventually they are called to the investigator one at a time, back and forth. The jeep that picked the men up arrives and the policemen from it join the investigation. Meanwhile Varda gets a telephone call from one of the people we had called and this person is surprised to hear that they are being investigated. The policemen at the CP get angry and ask Varda how many times she called. In any case, this phone conversation does not help the detainees. We call the Center for the Protection of the Individual, but they don’t answer. The policemen prevent us from giving the phone number of the Center to the detainees and insist that we stand at a distance saying that we are disturbing their investigation. The man from Beit Zafafa asks if he can drink something and does not get a clear answer. The policemen talk among themselves, saying that they want to eat. A BP jeep with two garbage pails goes out of the CP, drives to a side path and dumps the garbage. We don’t know what else we can do and after two hours we leave the CP, feeling frustrated. We suggested to the detainees that we take their phone numbers so that we can follow up on what happens with them but they didn’t want us to.11:30 El Khadr: NO military presence, relatively little traffic. We are told that in the morning the soldiers arrived in a jeep, checked IDs for ten minuets.11:45: Beit Jala CP: Little traffic, vehicles pass after a short check. One of the soldiers talks with us, and says that here there are no problems just sometimes traffic jams.12: Walleje CP: Almost no traffic on the road. One car stopped at the CP for checking.