Bethlehem & Surroundings; Monday, January 8, 2007Observers: Elka B. (Note taking), Mika G. (Reporting) 1:10 PM: At the checkpoint south of the Tunnels:We see people climbing onto a bus heading towards Jerusalem, evidently after they had been checked. On the way back, at about 3:00 PM, there are 10 taxis and private cars in the lane heading to be checked. We had no opportunity to stop and check the situation. District Coordination Office Ezyon:When we arrived we found a huge number of people in and around the waiting shack. It turned out that they had been waiting there since very early (some said 3:00 AM) and no one has been able top enter the building all morning. Since we could get no answer to our phone call to the commander of the District Coordination Office, a soldier on guard duty at the large gate agreed to find out the reason for this situation. He came back (after a bit) and explained that the computers crashed and, therefore, there is no way to process people and there is no point in them continuing to wait. Then it turned out that the crowd of people waiting there were aware of this problem and, nevertheless, perhaps based on past experience, would not follow the instructions (to leave) and continued to wait. And, indeed, at about 1:30 PM they started letting people in and since someone with initiative had already prepared a waiting list by name, there was no pressure (at the doors) and people where waiting scattered all around. At 2:10 PM we checked with the soldier in charge and were told that 12 people had gone in so far. We saw 2 people come out with magnetic cards. Two people approached us regarding people barred from entry by the Security Services and we gave them Sylvia’s phone number. A Palestinian man with an open file with the police approached us and we offered to find out from the police representative at the District Coordination Office how to arrange for his file to be processed/reviewed. The bathrooms were stinky and the heaps of garbage at the entrance to the shade structure are growing bigger and bigger. 2:45 PM: Al NashashThere was no military presence at the spot. The drivers there told us that the army makes sporadic check-up visits. The garbage on the side of the road is accumulating in big piles. 3:10 PM: Rachel’s Passage: Three checkpoints are operating. It’s very quiet.