Bethlehem. Tuesday PM, 12-7-05Observers: Yael I., Ruth O. and Ilana D. (reporting) From 4:00 till 7:00 PMA hot day, so we started our shift late. There was no military presence near Tantur, neither at the entrance to the Tunnel Road and Al-Khadr. We spotted no army vehicles on Road 60 either and assumed that most personnel must be engaged with the disengagement (no pun intended). At the Ezyon DCO the fan was working, the various sheets were posted on the windows (we put some more instruction copies in the plastic bag) and only one person waited for a document which he received. Maybe all clergymen and merchants have been given their permits and the numerus clausus abolished? Are we the first to experience the end of the occupation – no lines in the DCL and no soldiers anywhere? Abu Nassim received the documents we had been given by Haya. He told us that his sons live with their families in his house and that his daughters are all abroad. We spotted no soldiers in the pillboxes of Beit Ummar and El Aroub and continued till the road to Halhul admiring the huge plums for sale on the side of the road.The Ezyon and Efrat Checkpoints were not manned and we continued to Herodiyon wondering whether Bethlehem had been handed over to the Palestinian Authority and whether there would be a Palestinian roadblock. Instead we met with major road construction and the partly asphalted new Lieberman superhighway. At the entrance to Herodion is a new roundabout and young men told us that there are no checkpoints all the way to Bethlehem. They had no idea where the new road leads to, but thought it might have to be returned. At CP 300 an ambulance from Bethlehem was turned back. The soldier we queried told us that there was nothing urgent. He said he had suggested to the mother of the child ‘with a scratch on his way to the hospital for an operation’ to call an Israeli ambulance and transfer the child ‘back to back’, but the mother had refused – it costs 650 Shekels. He said that if he had deemed the case urgent, he would have let the ambulance pass, but that in this case, this had not been necessary.At the investigation offices two Israelis who had transported illegal Palestinians had been held up since 2:00 PM. One was a cab driver who hates us and Arabs. His mother told us that he owes 6,000 Sh. monthly on his cab and he cannot afford to have it confiscated for a month. He apparently had killed a Palestinian during his army stint and served a prison sentence. The Egged bus to Rachel’s Tomb left and returned empty.