Al Khadr, DCO Bethlehem Tuesday afternoon, 1 June 2004 Watchers: S., Yael S. (reporting) Overview: Aggressive soldiers at Al Khadr; Bethlehem DCO functioning poorly. [DCO=IDF Civil Administration office, where permits are issued.] Al Khadr. An army jeep (whose details I’ve noted) arrived simultaneously with us. Recognizing us, the commander threatened to dispatch the police to give us a traffic ticket. Later, a soldier gave us the finger towards the camera.The soldiers checked Palestinians randomly, and apart from kicking a bag to open it (belonged to a young couple with a little baby), strutting around brandishing their rifles skywards or pointed at the waiting crowd, nothing much happened. Life flowed on. The children are now on summer holiday (for three months) and are selling coffee at the checkpoint. Complaints: Traffic tickets for crossing the main road (where there are no traffic lights or pedestrian crossing). Yesterday the army entered a house in Hussam, causing damage. We couldn’t get to the village. Bethlehem DCO. Sewage still flowing… There were no field officers at the DCO today, and the results were obvious.Two medical cases, that had been waiting for hours, were rejected by the soldier at the window. One was a man of 50 who had undergone surgery recently, and had to go to El Mokassed hospital in Jerusalem for a check-up. The soldier in the window had taken away his ID card. It might have been easier, he said, to attempt one of the difficult detours around the checkpoints rather than wait so long. Dahlia Bassa intervened and speeded up the process.The other case had to get to Sha’arei Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem to collect the results of his CT. Because the letter from the hospital didn’t state a date, the soldier in the window refused to give him a permit. Dahlia phoned, told them it made no difference, and that they should give him a permit for Thursday. The instruction went down the chain of command, but there was no one in the DCO authorized to sign permits. Azhar finally arrived at 16:53 (seven minutes before the facility is officially closed) and signed three permits.A soldier on the roof ordered us to leave the waiting room (we were not allowed to be there, he said, adding that he’s not allowed to talk to me, etc. etc. To this we replied: “And you’re not allowed to invent laws in the State of Israel”). Several phone calls to the Civil Administration head spokesperson, Talia, who at 15:00 had already promised to send an officer to sort out the mess. She asked us to leave the waiting room: “You’re inside the Palestinian population and it’ll be hard to rescue you if… and we’re responsible for your security.” “I feel very safe inside the Palestinian population, much more than having a rifle aimed at me, and please don’t worry about me.” The Palestinians heard and laughed. But to preserve good relationships, we stayed outside the waiting room for much of the shift. Afterwards, I spoke to David (because Talia was no longer there). Work permits: A man who works in a church was refused a permit, first because the soldier told him that he was prohibited from getting one. I made inquiries at the army’s “Humanitarian Center” [that expedites medical cases and human rights alerts]. They checked his ID and told me that he is not prohibited. So the man went up to the window again, and this time the soldier tore up his previous permit and said he didn’t feel like giving him a permit. Over the phone, Azhar said that there‘s a tendency not to give permits to church maintenance workers. Commercial permits: impossible regulations. First case: A man plans to open a new business and wants to buy equipment in Bat-Yam [Israeli town near Tel Aviv]. The missing document is a permit from the Palestinian Chamber of Commerce. The catch – until the business actually opens, you can’t get a permit (proof that equipment was purchased).Second case: A man who has a permit attesting to the return of land taken from him by a settler in Alon Shvut. He hasn’t had a magnetic card [issued as proof of security clearance], since he filed a claim against the settler.Permits to fly out of Ben-Gurion airport were refused (two cases); the flights were postponed, in the hope that perhaps next time it’ll be possible.On our way back, the jeep was still in Al Khadr, and we saw a line of cars in front of the southern checkpoint in Beit Jallah. We didn’t make it to Bethlehem.