South Hebron and Hebron, 22/5/06, AMObservers: Nurit Sh, Michal Ts, Hagit B (reporting)06:30 – 11:45 A beautiful day, wonderful weather with blue skies, and very little traffic of any kind, military or Palestinian civilian. The whole shift was ritualistic of the big occupation, the drabness and the anger. It is really painful that it now seems ordinary, commonplace, that it seems almost possible to somehow live with this. Or is it my own adaptation? Some kind of blunting of the emotions? Could it be any worse? Mothers with little children in their arms, cross the road and clamber over piles of dirt.Sansana – very few workers cross quickly, the border police do their regular inspections – Samua, Dahariya, Dorah-al-Fuar, the junction between the roads to Halhul and Hebron, no army presence and almost no traffic.The Humanitarian Checkpoint – two cars are detained – when we came back, they had left. The Junction of Shion – A border police jeep together with a jeep was there – the soldiers weren’t doing a thing. In contrast, the border police were stopping vehicles with Palestinian license plates from Road 60 – buses, taxis and a few private cars and inspecting every person’s documents.Because every vehicle is stopped and people have to get out, there’s a long line. A woman with a baby stroller gets of the bus and continues by foot towards Hebron – she has an appointment at the Kupat Cholim Clinic and she is fed up. We ask the police how it is that if they are inspecting at random, they are stopping all vehicles – and, somehow, there is no proper answer – but after 20 minutes, everyone is released and they don’t stop any more vehicles. HebronAs soon as we go through the gate at Kiryat Arba, the guard in the sentry box tells the settlers that we are through and immediately, the settlers are following our every move us. It is 7:30 in the morning and the children are going to school. There are no problems today – it just seems as miserable as always – the settlers wandering around with their weapons drawn.Paratroop Brigade 890 is now manning the checkpoint, and they are not, to put it mildly, delighted to see us. “What! You women are here as well? Wasn’t it enough for us that we had to put up with you at Beit Iba?”No entry to the area – the Hebron commander has changed – and the new commander is Yehuda Fox. He is possibly more humane – but he is already a general. He could not possibly be worse than Motti Baruch.This town is so oppressive, and it seems that there is more guards than just the border police and regular police – a blue police jeep passes alongside the police checkpoint at Tel Raimond and Michal is told in a threatening tone – not to interfere with the army’s work. They have repaired most of the steps at Cordova School, though the first few are still difficult to climb – and at the top there are railings installed. The sidewalk is now paved which is perhaps a better solution while there is still friction with the settlers from the field school- at least until the settlers are evacuated.It’s difficult to breathe in this town!!Visit to the village of Deir Raza – we visited our friend, N., who told us about his trials and tribulations in order to get a magnetic card – and a general conversation about the political situation. It appears that in order to get a magnetic card these days – and he had a card for four years – you have to be interviewed by the General Security Services in your area – in our area, Captain Bailey – and this Captain Bailey puts on the pressure to make one a collaborator and if you don’t agree, somehow you have to wait years for your magnetic card…On our way back, we met with P from the border police who is the supervising officer at the Sansana checkpoint since RamadahnFor general information – the summer holidays in Palestine are three months: June, July and August. So that they begin in two weeks. One sees children with notebooks, preparing for their annual school examinations almost everywhere.