Bethlehem and the surroundings. Noaman. Tuesday morning, 24.1.2006Observers: Yehudiet A. Tamar A. (reporting)Natanya translating.6.40 Theatre of the absurd…..we have stopped trying to understand what is happening.On the way to Um tuba we meet a woman with two children and Yusef also with two children on their way to school. These are amongst the few children who are still allowed to go to Jerusalem schools because at least one of the parents has a blue id. As we get to Nuaman we are surprised by a car whose driver has managed to by-pass the blockages in the road but the last one even he cannot pass and he tells us to see what they have done to what once was a road. In the village we meet a man who has managed to get through the fence. He says that there are now soldiers at the opening and asks if we can help.7.25-8.00 A rolling checkpoint…mizmoriah. Here there are 12 Palestinians and two border police without a jeep. One is writing down the details of the Palestinians while using his friend’s back to do so.A third is some distance away and it is not clear what he is doing. If one is worried about the security of the soldiers the Palestinians could have been having a field day. We thought that the Palestinians were illegals but this was not so and the calm atmosphere was weird. One of the Palestinians and a border police were smoking and joking in Arabic. Every now and again they called out to their friends at El Has who were waiting to get through the fence to their work in Jerusalem. The policeman says that if they don’t come he will not release the group which has been caught and we think that this is to fill the quota of illegals with those who have managed to escape back to the village. Then the soldiers offer the villagers the food which has been left at the side by the soldiers and the villagers sit down and have a meal of the army sandwiches. The one soldier tells us not to touch the fence as then there will be an alarm. We cannot believe our ears. Everyone passes. He says the Palestinians in any case manage to get to Jerusalem even if they have to go underground or through the water system. But today anyone can go through even without a permit unless it is someone under suspicion.. But of course the other group do not come as they are suspicious of the border police. One of the Palestinians gives up and goes home and so does the whole group. The border police says they really wanted to pass them and they will not believe until they get used to it.