Bethlehem (300)

10:30 a frantic phone call from a man from EPPI (Ecumenical). He said there are dozens of detained people at the checkpoint and there is a great commotion. I made ​​some calls; most of them were not answered. One who did respond, and fast, was the military police. After about half an hour of phone calls I found out that the conversation with the EPPI man is a dialogue of the deaf. He does not understand me and I do not understand where the problem is. I decided to go see at the CP. It turned out that the passage was fairly flowing, but about 15 people were standing on the side, they were sent back and were not allowed to pass to the Israeli side despite their advanced age. One of them was 81-year-old. It turned out that there was a misunderstanding about him and indeed he was allowed to pass. The others, all of which we checked according to their ID numbers, were GSS prevented or police prevented. Of course, no one gave them an explanation of what can be done to try to remove the prevention.

Among those detained were two women and when we tried to find out what their problem was they "panicked" over the phone. They are apparently a "serious threat". I must admit that according to the superficial impression I got they did not appear as capable "to bomb the whole country" - but who are we? The GSS men, who screw up so very often, obviously know much more about security and especially about freedom of movement and human rights.

There was no DCL representative. Why? To my surprise the civil society members did not intervene and did not prevent me from talking to the detained people.

I left around 12: 00 when the detained people left and the ecumenical people went away as well.