Bethlehem (300), Etzion DCL

Bethlehem and Etzion  

Bethlehem checkpoint (Ronit reporting)

06:35 - wet and cold outside. Inside there are 6-7 windows open. The hall is full but the passage flows. In window 1 the carousel is still broken, stuck. The passers have to squeeze between the handles. Towards 06:45 the hall empties and some of the windows close, but later when the hall filled up again more windows were opened and the passage flowed smoothly. Towards 07:00 the soldier in charge announced to her colleagues that they can pass people who have permits for 08:00.

M., a Swedish Ecumenical volunteer, says that the Palestinians told them that the people from the Civil Administration stole equipment from a garage in Husan. He said it seems more likely that the equipment was seized by order. Indeed, when documents in Hebrew and Arabic were checked one of them indicated a seizure order. According to him the people who have the seized equipment consulted a lawyer. It was agreed that this is what should have been done because an attorney can examine the legality of the order and deal with it.

Last week M., the Ecumenical, interviewed Sylvia about the situation and the activities of Machsomwatch. Today he continues his interview with Goni. Sylvia arrives and tells us that A. our acquaintance told her he must renew his magnetic card and that he wants to do it on Thursday afternoon, after work (Thursday is the day to issue magnetic cards to the people of his village); but he found out that on Thursdays they close at midday. Sylvia found out that indeed - The soldiers take a holiday weekend early, starting on Thursday. For the same reason, they only begin to issue magnetic cards on Sundays at12:00; this is when they come back from their long weekend. What about the Palestinians? Let them wait; let them lose a day's work, who cares...

DCL Etzion (Sylvia reporting) 
08:10 – Four people who scheduled ahead of time are waiting for us at Etzion DCL. Three of them, sent by attorney Tamir Blank, have yet to submit applications for restriction removal. (On Thursday, 1.1.2015, eighteen applications that weren’t handled in December were faxed to DCL.) We brought the printed applications for the people who came and two of them were let in. The soldier refused to accept the applications. He said: “let the lawyer come”. We tell the applicants  to produce the lawyer’s letter and the power of attorney and hand them all to the soldier. For one of the people it worked. The other was told that his employer should write where exactly the workplace is, in addition to the letter he wrote. One of the draconian requirements of Etzion DCL is that when the work is in Israel (as opposed to working in settlements) the employer must ask for a permit to work in Israel and to provide " proof of refusal" (a DCO report that says the man is restricted). When requesting a permit to enter Israel, it is for all of Israel except Eilat. This time they refused to accept the letter because it didn’t state explicitly where in Israel he is supposed to work and because he didn’t bring “proof of refusal”. The proof was actually among the documents but it was printed on the width of the page and not on the length ... The soldier apparently did not recognize the paper. Ultimately they did not accept the application of this person.  This efficient man turned immediately to his employer and received a letter in which the job location was stated. He returned to DCL in the afternoon with the new letter and also showed them that he has the " proof of refusal; his application was accepted.

It turned out that all 18 submissions by fax were received so that the ordeal of these two men was unnecessary. The third man went in later. They made no problems and accepted his application with the attorney’s letter... why? Because...

Finally, something else about DCL: there is no key in the bathroom. Those who enter have to recruit a guard at the door till they come out. A few weeks ago we reported this to officer A. but they probably have no budget for that. Why "waste" on basic respect for applicants?