Bethlehem and Surroundings, monday pm, 4.7.2005Observers: Noah I. Zipi A. reportingNatanya translating.Ezion DCO: 14.45 About 20 people waiting. It is blazing hot in the hut and the fans are not working. We asked the sentry on duty to open them and he said he did not know how to but a few minutes later another soldier relieved him and when we asked him he got them working.A young woman from Bethlehem left the shed and her father and husband told us that since May this was the fifth time that she had asked for a magnetic card so that she could apply for a permit to go for treatment at Hadassah hospital and each time had been refused and no one will explain to her why. Noah phoned the DCO and lo and behold the woman soldier told the woman to come again to the window and she received a magnetic card which had been there since who knows when. No one could be bothered to give it to her. She used the opportunity to put in a request to enter Jerusalem as the magnetic card would not be enough, she needs a permit now.An elderly man who needed a permit to get to Mucased Hospital ( EAst Jerusalem Hospital) for tests was not allowed through because he was a Palestinian policeman. Does that limit him? Or this is just an arbitrary rejection?Another elderly man approached us and said that he has been GSS restricted for five years. We told him to contact Lieutenant Commander Yaier Lotstein at the DCO of Beit El about having this cancelled and he said he would prefer to deal with it himself and made a note of the details which appear on the wall.El Khadr. 16.30 No military presence. The place is very busy with taxis waiting for passengers and it seems that there are many more kiosks doing trade in the area. BEthlehem Checkpoint 300. We enter the checkpoint with the car and the woman soldier explains to us where we can turn and that we are not allowed into Bethlehem and to the RAchel’s Tomb. Only protected buses are.When we exited there was one detainee standing in the sun who told us that he had been caught when he tried to pass through the olive grove and had been there for two hours waiting for his ID. Noah phoned the office of the commander of the border police of the Jerusalem area and was told to connact various others but no one answered. She left him her water bottle and at 17.30 we returned to Jerusalem.