Bethlehem and surroundings, Sunday, 10.9.2006, AfternoonObservers: Natalia G. Yael S. (reporting) Summery: It was hot and stinking day. Etzion DCO – 9:30: We arrived purposely in the afternoon, at 14:30. All the people who had magnetic numbers were already let in. About 30 people, among them 4 women, were still waiting. They hoped for another division of numbers. We sent an SMS to Eyal: will there be an additional division of magnetic cards today? His answer was: not today. Because of the terrible heat most of the people sat outside the hut, some sat in its’ shade, some stood around the carousel, and about 5 were sitting in the hut. At about 16:00 A. came out with 10 magnetic numbers. The others had to go home; maybe tomorrow they will have more luck. It proved to me, beyond any doubt, that you have nobody who can give reliable answers, one can’t tell what will happen tomorrow, and what and when the DCO commander decide – how many numbers will be delivered? How many magnetic cards will be given? – This is all under the condition that the computer system will be working. About 10 people were waiting for the GSS. Nobody was let in; the GSS does not have to report to anybody. They do whatever they want.Among the people waiting two or three needed GSS approval to go to Jordan. We spent about 3 hours at the DCO helpless against the bureaucracy, the filth and sub-conditions. We didn’t succeed in helping even one person, and except the solidarity and enlarging the profit of the cellular companies, our efforts were good for nothing. Part of the people who were waiting for the GSS got their IDs at about 16:00 together with a note to come back tomorrow. The ones who wanted to go to Jordan were left to wait past 17:30, when we had to leave. The three of them arrived to the bridge in Jericho and had to turn back. They didn’t ask to come to Israel; they didn’t ask to pray at El-Aktsa, or to be in Jerusalem. They wanted to go to Jordan, perhaps to visit the mother of one of them, or to come back to the US after staying with their family, or any other reason. A Palestinian has to go through the GSS approval in order to get out from Bethlehem or Hebron to Amman! It is now 20:00 and I have not heard from them, so I don’t know what happened to them.