Bethlehem and surroundings, Sunday July 31, AMObservers: Sylvia P and Ofra B (reporting)6:55 CP 300: Quiet. Almost nobody crossing (maybe four or five in the half hour we were there). No detainees, no problems…Closure with all the implications. Reminds me of the chaos principle: the detachment seems to be the butterfly fluttering its wings in China. Above the CP fly the flags. Very symbolic that one of them is in the process of shrinking. Last week we noticed it was half gone and Sylvia caught it in her camera. All that’s left of it is half of the Magen David and parts of the stripes on the top and the bottom. a metaphor of our “national pride”? Or of its moral turpitude?7:25 Al Khader: many cars and relatively few passengers both at the Road 60 end and the other side, the side of the village. People are gathered together, sitting on the side of the road, maybe waiting for contractors to pick them up because of the closure which keeps them from being able to cross CP 300. The “market” also seems dead, many stalls are closed and only a few veggie booths are open. The veggie store owners and their cronies, who hang around for nothing better to do, tell us about their hardships due to police restrictions, problems with driver’s licenses that were suspended, having to report to the court in Ofer, having to bring a signed document from the Moriah Police station and, as always, the difficulty of obtaining an entry permit into Israel in order to reach the police stations. It’s so hard to follow the bureaucratic processes and their intricate sequence and there’s no one to turn to for explanation. We could not be of help because the person who turned to us did not bring his documents today. Tomorrow he will bring them to the morning Machsomwatch and will turn to Haya, Ada and Malka for help.8:10 Ezyon DCL: We look if the instructions in Hebrew and in Arabic for filling out the letters of petition in the cases of GSS refused or security refused are still in place. They are, but the nylon envelope for the copies of the instructions is gone. We put up a new envelope with 10 copies of the instructions. During our watch, one is taken. In addition, we add the Machsomwatch telephone number in a better and more obvious way after we got feedback from the other shifts. The windows are open and seemingly the procedure is quick today. In the shack where the public waits, there are some 15 people and their number decreases quickly. A few of them ask for explanation of what has been scribbled in Hebrew on their official request forms – refused by the GSS or by the police. For the who- knows- how- maniest time we send them to ask Haya or Ada for help. If only someone in the windows would take the time to really explain things to them, it would make life so much easier for them. One of them, who has already paid NIS 5,000 in fines, and who claims to have paid much more than that, complains bitterly that he has been sent away for yet another week. That’s the time it takes in the 21st century to send a fax or an instruction from the computer in Beth El to the one in Ezyon! This particular guy is a truck driver and he has just lost another week of work!9:15 – for rounding off our watch: our weekly meeting with Att. Fadel Achdush who takes care of GSS refused from Hebron. We take his envelopes and send them through the mail, registered, to Aluf Lothstein in Beth El.