Bethlehem and its vicinity, Tuesday 22.8.06Observers: Shulamit N, Ruthi R (Reporting) 7:00 The Terminal in BethlehemThere were very few people and no waiting line in the passage. One reception window was open. Most workers haven’t yet changed their working permits. There were almost no women. The road leading to the DCO was also empty, and no one was waiting in line at Gilo checkpoint. 07:45 Ezyon DCLIn contrast to the emptiness at the terminal of Bethlehem, the area near the DCL was filled with cars and people. Most of them were waiting for work permits. One of the officers explained to them that work permits, which are handed out by the DCL, are only those which belong to people from Bethlehem, the rest were distributed, this time, according to place of residence, Hebron, Abu Dis, and so on… The people there asked him again, and he kept telling them to go to Hebron for their permits, he said that the officer from Hebron stopped by yesterday and took all the permits. They stayed there, standing by the gate. The soldier near the gate tried to make them go away, “Stand back, don’t you understand, everyone must stand back”. They didn’t react, they walked towards the gate. After several minutes three officers arrived, the major talked to them very roughly in Arabic, he threatened them and forced them to move. Every one stood in the sun. It was a very hot day. They couldn’t all stand in the one small corner that had some shade. Naturally there was no water. An old man and a person with his daughter got permission to stand in the shade. Israeli employers were allowed to enter the kingdom of Linda and Ami, an employer from east Jerusalem (who had a blue id) wasn’t allowed to pass. Only after we pleaded together with him, he was received a permission to pass. Five settlers attacked us with rude words and violence, we answered them but we couldn’t compete with their insolence. The guard, who was sitting above the shed, told them to stop swearing and kept insisting, even when they accused him of being an “Arab lover”. Hundreds of people were waiting in the sun. They approached us and said that there weren’t any work permits in Hebron. Some of them went there and were told that their permits are not there. They also called Hebron and were told that all the permits were in Ezyon DCO. All our efforts to find out what happened, failed. The officer who tried to help me didn’t know whom to call, no one answered the phones at the DCL.The Palestinians begged us to go in there and bring their permits. They, like us, understand that the point of all of this is to get employers to stop employing Palestinian workers. What a nightmare. We stood there for a long time, until Yoav Has came out of the gate (to those who don’t know- he is a great guy that even before Ta’aush had been founded passed by villages and distributed flower sugar and other vital products). He suggested that Machsom Watch and “Stop the Silence”, refer to the high court of justice about working permits that were canceled after they have already been handed out.