Checkpoint 300 was almost deserted at 6:30 AM. We were at a loss for the reason. The soldiers greeted us with surprise: “Who are you? Never heard of you”. Only the volunteer, Yossi Kisos, said he knew of our “silly escapades”. Yossi didn’t think we had a right to be there, as we don’t go to bomb explosions in Israel to protect rights. Nevertheless, he agreed that the Palestinians suffer and he sees his task as restraining the young soldiers from excesses. The commander (a Druze, we think) was much more thoughtful and said he thought the checkpoints and all the otherrestrictions and other measures in the territories were a terrible tragedy.At Gush Etzion, we saw about twenty men behind the fence, their ID’s taken from them. One told N. that his ID had been taken on Monday and he has been coming back every day to try to retrieve it. We called Moran at the Moked, but it was too early. We gave him the number to call later. Meanwhile, a bus had arrived and everyone was ordered off. ID’s were slowly checked, and most people got back on. A few were help back. One, a youngish man with asthma, had a doctor’s referral to the Bethlehem hospital. The commander would not explain why he was held back, and forced us away by shoving his gun, saying he would have nothing to do with us andwe were interfering in his job. Nevertheless, the asthma patient was allowed back on on board. El Khadr was not manned and lots of people were crossing over unbothered.