Beit Ummar, Etzion DCL, Nabi Yunis, Mon 15.7.13, Morning
Etzion DCO, Beit Umar, Nabi Yunis
07:30 Husan. People asked us about the Shabak blacklist.
07:50 Nashah. No one awaited us.
08:10 Etzion DCO
About ten people waited for the DCO. Maybe there were so few because of Ramadan. The policeman told us on the phone that everything was as usual where he is at the Etzion DCO, and also at the Hebron DCO. That is: Open from 08:00-12:00, and that’s what people were told who telephoned to ask whether there were police on site at Etzion and Hebron.
At 10:30 we received a call from a man who arrived at the policeman’s window at 09:15. He said five more people were waiting and they’d been told by a soldier that the policeman was busy and won’t arrive. I spoke to the policeman, who told me he’d receive them. At 11:15 the same man notified me that the policeman still hadn’t appeared at the reception window. We spoke to the commander who told us that the policeman was in a meeting with the head of the Civil Administration (!!)…The meeting will end soon and the policeman will receive those waiting. At 11:45 we learned that the people (now two more) were still waiting.
Another phone call; the policeman’s superior told us that the policeman had received people in the morning (apparently around 08:00), and that those waiting (since 09:00) should be patient. He didn’t at all like our comments about the quality of the service the policeman provided.
At 12:30 we spoke to our “liaison” who told us that the policeman had, in fact, arrived, took ID cards and returned with “Forms.” Of course, this was nothing unusual. People wait by the window, the policeman appears once or twice during reception hours. Sometimes the soldiers say there’s no policeman (he doesn’t sit at the window during the appointed hours), and people don’t always obtain the “Forms,” which is what most of them have come for.
08:30 Beit Umar
A few people came for advice regarding blacklisting by the police or the Shabak. Meanwhile Muhammad, his brother and brother-in-law were caught in Israel yesterday morning without permits. Muhammad and his brother were released on bail; their trial will be held at Ofer in a few months. Bail for each was set at NIS 1500 but they bargained and finally paid NIS 750 each. They were released in the afternoon, but their brother-in-law was jailed – they don’t know where. We gave them the phone number of Hamoked Center for the Defense of the Individual so they can find out where he is.
There’s nothing unusual about this incident either; it’s completely routine.
09:00 Nabi Yunis
The only person waiting for us was the man released a few months ago from the Hadarim prison, about whom we wrote in our previous report. He’d been released in the evening and had a receipt to collect his belongings during the day, when the storeroom was open. The list included his ID card, belt, cellphone and wallet. One of our colleagues in the Sharon went to the Hadarim prison on his behalf, with a power of attorney the man had given to a lawyer, and a power of attorney indicating that she was the attorney’s representative. At Hadarim prison they rejected them, telling her she needed an original copy of the power of attorney the man had given her, not one transmitted by fax. So the man made another trip from Yatta to Nabi Yunis on a hot Ramadan day. We wrote a power of attorney in Hebrew, with the name of our colleague and her ID number, translated it for him and he signed. All with a blue pen, proving that the document is the original power of attorney, not a faxed copy. When we got to Jerusalem we put it in an envelope and mailed it to our colleague in the Sharon. Will she succeed in retrieving the property left at the prison? We’ll keep you informed.
We’ll simply add that, over the years, the opposite has also occurred: we and colleagues came to prisons for the above reason, with personal powers of attorney from the people involved, and were told we needed one from an attorney!