Bethlehem and surroundings, Monday, 16.10.2006, AfternoonObservers: Yael R. Mika G. (reporting) Etzion DCL – 13:30: As we arrived people turned to us with problems. A woman with work-permit from the Greek-Orthodox Church in Jerusalem was not allowed to go through with the excuse that the Church’s quota was full. We asked a soldier on top of the tower by the big gate to come down, and he explained to us that each DCL gets a quota of work-permits for the church. Now the people can get this permit only from the church. We told the woman that she had to go back and ask the church for another permit.Four people were refused as GSS detainees. We gave them Sylvia’s number.An electrical engineer who was caught trying to bypass a CP was defined as “police detainee”. We called Mayer, the police representative. He asked the man to come to him. When he got out he told us that he was taken care of: he left his papers and within a week the matter will be clarified. At 14:00 a man got out with a magnetic card, he told us that he waited since 8:00.Four Palestinians waited by the big gate. They told us that their work-permits were taken at Gilo CP and they were told to come and get them at the DCL. The polite soldier at the tower explained that their contractor had to get in touch with the DCL in order to arrange the permit. We left them as they tried to get in touch with the contractor. A man from Nazareth, married to a woman from Bethlehem, waited for his pregnant wife who entered in order to renew her residence-permit. He complained about the degrading treatment. He told us that they came from Nazareth yesterday, but because of a missing paper they had to go back and forth. At 16:00, when we left, his wife was not yet out. A man who was rejected, showed us the definition: “rejection by the business bureau”. It turned out that he was 34 and therefore he can’t get a work-permit. A doctor from Bethlehem working in Rammalla asked for our help: she was at the DCL already in the morning but it turned out that the renewal of her driver’s license was not yet on the computer, in spite of the fact that she had a valid license. She had to go to the Palestinians Transport Administration. She came back with a letter that the permit was paid for. Again she went to the clerk, but the clerk sent her out without even looking at the papers. We managed to get in touch with the officer near the big gate, and he said that he will take care of her, so let her come in again. We sent her feeling very good, but after a few minutes she came out and told us that there was no officer inside, and the clerk again didn’t want to talk to her. We looked for the officer who disappeared, but did not find him. The soldier told us that nothing can be done about it. If the Authority doesn’t update her name on the computer and refers it to the DCL, there is no possible way to give her the permit. She left bitter and angry and we felt frustrated and desperate.