Ofer Military Court, Tuesday June 26, 2007Observers: Hagit S. and Rama Y. (reporting)Translator: Miriam E.We arrived a little after 10:00; the building was locked and silent except for about 30 Palestinians standing behind the fence that surrounds the detention facility, serving as a parking lot. The soldiers had perhaps gone to an R&R day at the beach. Even at this hour it was hot, but a little shade was provided by the concrete wall surrounding the base, where they all crowded helplessly and waited, as they are accustomed to doing. Perhaps something would happen; perhaps the court would open anyway.Among the crowd were those who have come for hearings of family members, and others who had been summoned by the police or court for a certain date. The latter were particularly concerned about what would happen if their hearings weren’t held.A round of telephone calls to Ofer was made, but, as usual, no one who answered was willing to take any responsibility and “commit” to saying what those waiting should do. The first to answer was a woman, who passed us on to “Yaakov”, who passed us on to “one of the defendants”, who gave us the phone number of someone else, the “Court Officer”, who said that all of those summoned had been contacted by phone to inform them of their hearings’ being cancelled.It was likely that there was some truth in this, because the number of people who had arrived was relatively low. She also made the creative suggestion that we relay to her the ID numbers of everyone gathered there, and she would tell us the new hearing date. We refused. Hagit was the one negotiating, and asked if there were someone from the base who could come to talk to those waiting and take care of them. After some back-and-forth, N., a sergeant, came out with another soldier.At first, she announced to everyone that they should come back on August 8; but due to some sense of responsibility, and because she herself seemed dissatisfied with this state of affairs, she called someone, then collected ID cards and took them with her to write each individual a formal summons. At almost noon, she came back and distributed the letters.