El-Khader 7/2/2004 Watchers: Vivi T., Rachel H. and Nina M. (reporter) Gush Ezion and the 300 checkpoint were empty.Roadblock was reinforced by the army immediately after the recent suicidal bombing in Jerusalem bus. It is now formed from 1 m high very slippery mud barrier. This is a point to which buses and taxis bring people from Hebron. From here people need to walk over the above described roadblock and another few hundreds meters in order to continue their trip to Bethlehem or further to northern parts of the West Bank. There are few vendors selling coffee and food. Few minutes after our arrival (around 8 a.m.) 4 reserve soldiers in jeep arrived. They started to display power by ordering vendors to move beyond the roadblock. Soldiers asked who are we and, after we described ourselves as human rights activists, the long replicas that we got from 3 out of 4 soldiers, including a major, was: there are no human rights beyond this roadblock. They (pointing towards El-Khader) are animals and do not deserve any human rights. The complete dehumanization of Palestinians was openly expressed. It was clear that those 3 representatives of the Israeli army felt very confident in expressing their views. It was clear that these views are not considered by them as improper or as shameful for Israeli soldiers. We are going to write a complaint about this loud expression of racism.