ETzion DCO, Wallaje, Beit Jalla

Bethlehem and environs, Sunday,2/1/05observers: Ilana H., Hagit S.(reporting)Heavy rain and fog on the Wallaja road to Etzion made it impossible to seemuch beyond the front of the car. We found refuge at the MATAK (DCOEtzion).14:30 some 30 persons are waiting in the cold and wet shack. Some say theyhave been waiting since early morning as the pace of work is extremely slow.Every now and then - they explain in anger - a few persons are called andattended to and then, for a long while, the windows close.When we arrived, the police window was closed and of the four others onlyone was operating. Our phone calls to Azhar and Maher worked like magic andwithin minutes the line started moving quite fast. But not for long. Mahersoon disappeared. He was called to an important meeting and left the 11persons who were waiting for him at this point to wait longer. We phoned andprotested again and again and demanded he should be at the window andprovide the service at the reception hours, especially so after 10 days ofabsence when the police service at the MATAK was not available. Maherreturned after awhile and resumed work.Some of the people who finally got to the police window managed to arrangewhat they came for (mostly old and new debts due to traffic tickets). Twoamong those said they come from Hebron DCO to Etzion since the former is byfar a worse place to get any police service. In Hebron DCO you have to signup for the line at 3 in the morning and some 500 persons are waiting therein the open (no waiting room, no facilities) with luck you will be among the60 who will get service on any given day. We will look into this in thefollowing days and alert the southern MW group as well.A few persons who have tough problems which have been dragging on for monthshave asked us for help. Some of whom we advised to get in touch with Firas.One person is denied a magnetic card - and has lost, as a result, a job hehad been holding for years - since he has a police record which has to dowith a disputed plot of land with a settler who claims ownership of part ofhis property. Ilana called S. Lecker who explained the steps that should betaken to make it possible for this person to regain a magnetic card. Leckerclaimed he has resolved many such cases where the police record has nocriminal nor security ground and therefore should not cause refusal of amagnetic card. Lecker's advice for this sort of case was to meet with thepolice investigation officer ( in Etzion it is Arik Mordechai) and/or turnto the 'Moked' (Center for the Defense of the Individual) and/or to a lawyer(their fees vary. We asked some and found a range between 700 NISand 2000NIS). We intend to follow up on these cases of especially intricateproblems as it is obvious their frequent waiting at the police window atthe DCO will never lead anywhere.We interfered successfully in a case where two young persons were given awritten order to appear before the Security Services at the end of Januaryand were sent away without their ID cards. We demanded the return of theID's and it was promptly done.On our way back the fog had lifted. Etzion CP was not manned, we saw no longlines in Beit Jalla CP and there were no soldiers at the post in Wallaja. InEin-Yael CP two taxis with Israeli drivers were detained for about 15minutes. Both were driving women for holliday shopping at the nearby mall.The shoppers from Bethlehem were turned back as they had no permits to enterIsrael. Those from Wallaja were permitted to cross the CP after their IDswere checked.