Bethlehem and surroundings, Monday, 28.11.2005, AMObservers: Haya A. Ada G. Malka A. (reporting)Beit-Jalla7:12 – A nice day. The traffic is scarce. There are no soldiers. Al-Khadr7:30 – Lots of cabs and pedestrians, among them pupils climbing the hill on their way to school. Issa, 53 years old, a father of 11 children, was arrested with his son on the first day of their work in Israel for the livelihood of their family, because they did not have an entrance permit. (See the fourth Geneva Convention, the right to livelihood, paragraph 39). They opened files for him and for his son, but did not give Issa the number. Haya and Ada help him and some other people. 8:15: A military jeep and 2 soldiers block us on the way leading south. Behind us, near the CP, tens of transits full of passengers. We find ourselves locked with them between earth mounds of the CP and the soldiers, who prevent us from moving. The road south is empty, and only the traffic to Jerusalem goes by. Why don’t they regulate the traffic and let us move too?8:25: Ada goes out of the car and asks: “Why do you block us?” The soldier says to her: “I think that you are confused”. The cars behind us beep. Tension is in the air. Now there are already six soldiers standing with their weapons. Ada and Haya go out and protest, they ask: why? A soldier or an officer answers again a reply which can be explained in a few ways: “in order to avoid accidents”. 8:35: It seems that they want to get rid of us, so they let us go through. Only one agile cab succeeds to go through with us, and again for hundreds of people the way was blocked. This situation is a symbol to the “human condition”.8:40: We pass along signs: Nave-Denial, Migdal-Oz, Efrata, and there is not even one car following us, which means that the people in Al-Khadr are still detained. Ezyon junction is deserted. At the edge of the refugee camp El-Harub there is no military and no police. Opposite the “agricultural farm” a few tens of pupils are standing, detained by our soldiers, wet, cold, with light clothes, exposed to the rain, in a collective punishment. Beit-Omar CP8:45 – No soldiers. A few people asking for help. One person has problems: he is in need of a medical treatment in an eye clinic in Jerusalem. Haya tells him to call Dalia. A Jordanian resident came for a visit with two babies. A few weeks ago when she wanted to go back to Jordan she didn’t get a permit. Haya takes care of her.9:00: Mostafa takes out a request for an entrance permit to Israel and shows us that the paper was given back to him with refusal, without mentioning the date. This missing information might cause him troubles. Halhul9:50 – There is no military at the southern entrance, and the traffic is scarce.Ezyon DCO10:10 – One person tells us that he was insulted. He was stopped by a soldier at one of the CP and was ordered to open his luggage. Because of his physical limitations his movements were too slow for the soldier, who yelled at him: “Open the luggage ‘ya-maniac’ (crazy one)”. According to the fourth Geneva Convention the territories’ residents are entitled to “a respectful attitude to their body and honor.” (chapter 27).Zayad from Abu-Dis, father to 13 children owns a shoe store in Jerusalem for many years. He has a magnetic card, and they used always to renew his entrance permit to Jerusalem. This year in the middle of October they refused to renew it, and since then he has no livelihood for himself and for his family. They rebuff him by sending him back and fourth, and telling him: go to Abu-Dis. At Abu-Dis they tell him to go to the Ezyon DCO. We encourage him to go back to the window and ask: 1. if he is detained; 2. if they opened a file for him; 3. If they did open a file, let them write its number. Again we see that not giving exact information causes physical and mental pain, loss of livelihood, and all as a result of disrespect: e.g.Alli, 41 years old. A police file was opened for him, but they didn’t give him the number;Nagi, from Bethlehem, a father to 10, has a magnetic card. He wants to work in the building sector, but doesn’t get a permit. According to Geneva Convention he has the “right to livelihood”. “People, who lost their livelihood because of war, should be given the chance to find a job. If because of security reasons this person is prevented from finding a job, his livelihood should be supplied by the conquering side” (chapter 39). We give a phone number to one person who is GSS detainee which might help him. 11:30: We go back to Jerusalem. At El-Khadr there is no military now.