Bethlehem and surroundings, Wednesday PM, 18.05.05Observers: Noa R., Yael R., Tirtza F., Ayelet F. (reporting)14:45 Jabaa checkpointNo detainees.15:15 Ezion DCO5 waiting in the shed, 2 waiting at the manned window. One goes out and approaches us. He works in a church in Jerusalem and renews his permit every 3 months. Yesterday he was told to bring a detailed description of his work there. Today when he brought the description he was told he isn’t going to get a permit becasue ”there is no quota for church workers”. We call Moti. He says the quota is for 170 church workers from the Bethlehem area, and right now they are full. When there will be new quotas? ”Don’t know” How is it possible to find out, should he come and check every day? ”Yes.” So why was he told to come today with the description? ”Becase since yesterday 20 more quotas were filled”.16:00: 15 people waiting now, 2 more windows are opened. Another church worker is refused a permit. 16:45 Ezion checkpoint, El KhadrUnmanned16:55 Beit Jala2 vehicles detained on the entrance. 15 minuets later they are allowed to go on, except one passenger who goes to wait on the other side.The checkpoint commander stand near the detainee. The man, resident of Beit Jala, tells he was caught without a permit 3 years ago, so the shabac wanted to detain him. The checkpoint commander gives him unasked for advice: ”don’t smoke, it’s unhealthy, I used to smoke too and I quit. You remind me of myself.” We ask him to promote the man’s release, but the expected answer is ”Once the shabac says to detain I can’t let him pass”. by 18:00 arrives the answer from the shabac: the man needs to report in Ezion DCO 4 days from now at 9 am, at Captain Yoni. The man goes on his way.A handicapped man on a wheelchair arrives, wanting to pass in the cars passage. The commander calls him to approach, but the man makes him understand he can’t get on the pavement. The commander lets him go on. During our stay 2 trucks want to enter the village but are sent back. We try to understand why and are referred to Azhar from the DCO for answers.18:10 Tunnel checkpointA bus is sent to be checked. The rest of the cars pass.BP soldier patrol road 60 all the way to Tantur.18:20 Bethlehem CP300About 15 detainees in the shed and near it. Among them a couple with 2 toddlers. One of us takes out a camera to photograph the family, but a BP soldier [Alex] asks her not to take his picture. We say we’re not taking his picture. Another soldier [Nadav] interferes and asks us not to take any pictures since his collegue asked us not to take his picture. We repeat our intention to take only the detainee’s picture but Nadav begins to yell at us to go away. An argument starts about our right to stand there and leads to our IDs being taken from us and to us being detained for investigation and charged with ”disturbing a policeman at work”. Our investigation started 3 hours later and was over at 23:00. We called Ada Ravon as soon as we were detained to consult her about the legality of our detention and our rights, but we were obliged to end the phone call after a short while and were not allowed to make other phone calls. Our cellphones were not confiscated. Ada informed Silvia and the latter and Hagit S. made numerous calls to different officers. When the reached the commander of the soldiers at the checkpoint he refused to release us and insisted we were disturbing them.Our detention has detained the palestinian detainees who were arrested (before investigation!) just to allow the soldiers to detain them with no time limit.Hagit S. stayed there an hour after we left and reported one detainee felt ill and apparently has fainted. An ambulance took him to Bethlehem. The rest of the detainees were still there by the time Hagit left.