Bethlehem, Tue 15.7.08, Morning

6:30 AM, Bethlehem CP: Four checking posts are open, the lines are remarkably short, so seemingly, all is quiet and well organized. Except for waves of loud shoutings and the unintelligible yells of a female voice through the loudspeaker, ordering people around, that we hear from the other side of the CP. The hell this morning is, as in many others, over there, far from the eye. The crowding, people keep telling us, is horrible. We talk to a volunteer of the ecumenical organization on the other side, and he reports that only one turnstile is functioning. Later on a second one was opened (but never all three of them).

This is almost a routine in Bethlehem CP.

At 08:00 AM the pressure dwindles; about fifty people are still waiting behind the turnstiles. Many workers missed their transportation – yet another lost working day.