Etzion DCL

T.S. Elliot   Mankind cannot bear very much reality.

This is the sentence that came to mind yesterday after two hours at the checkpoint. But then I thought this is not our reality but that of the Palestinians and we are part of this vicious bureaucracy and part of the behavior of the state

On the way to the DCO just before the site of the Biyar aqueduct  https://etziontour.org.il/en/item/biyar-aqueduct we have seen as in past weeks police vehicles stopping cars to be checked but we did not see if this was the case also of Israeli cars. We will check next time if the police are there. A rather weird place to make a police checkpoint as it is on the highway.

A large group of men waiting at the turnstile and they claimed that they had been waiting there for a long time. We wrote to Asaf at 11:12 and he replied at 11:40 that there is no one there. Hardly surprising as eventually after a long wait they had all gone  through. They had been turned back at the checkpoint although many of them had a document to show that they had done the booster but of course it was not on the computer. Sylvia said to tell them to go back to the Palestinian Authority who had to coordinate with the IDF  and one man said that the latter took no notice of them. In any case that it would take a week and they all  bitterly said that they had families at home and how were they to feed them. There were more people sitting in the waiting room, mainly the Palestinians who had been turned back at the checkpoints of Bethlehem and Hebron because they had to have the booster or because they had not had the vaccination.

A man came with his little boy who had to be at St. John’s hospital. He had trouble with the permit so we told him that if it did not solve itself, he should make another appointment and if he again had a problem phone Hanna or Sylvia.

Two men whose vehicles had been confiscated because the IDF had said that they were working without permission although the owner of the land had his papers. Evidently they were building a corral for the sheep but without a permit this is forbidden and it would be a waste of time for them to apply for one.

A man who is prevented had come for permission to accompany his 19 year old daughter to hospital who was in an ambulance for an emergency heart operation for which he would have to pay 30,000 shekel. He was prepared to pass even if only for two hours. We wrote to Asaf with the documents but were not surprised not to receive an answer.  The Palestinian  arrived with a family member who spoke good Hebrew. He had been told the previous day in Hebron that he had been granted permission but when he arrived at the checkpoint he was refused. While he was speaking to us, the girl was still in the ambulance at the checkpoint but he had received a phone call from the hospital that as he had not  accompanied her,  they would not do the operation. The mother was also not with her but the men gave us to understand that she was not mentally competent to deal with the situation. Later we were told that the patient  was alone in the ambulance and very scared had been returned to her aunt’s home in Bethlehem. Unfortunately there was so much pressure on us from all directions that we forgot to ask if there was no one else in the family who could accompany her. We phoned Hanna Barag who was sitting with a lawyer. The latter spoke to the Palestinian and told him to go inside again and speak to them.

• We spent so much time on this problem phoning the world and his wife and afterwards it was very aggravating when we were informed by Mor from Leap that the  young woman was married and that her husband could have gone with her or other siblings.  The explanation given to Mor was that the young woman was very attached to her father and wanted him to be with her. Mor had been prepared to speak the  army official about their case but that would have been too much empathy for the IDF and inside the soldier refused to speak to her. In this case it turned out to be irrelevant but it also shows how autistic the army officials are.  It is also unclear why they came to Bethlehem instead of returning to Hebron for the permission. But the bottom line is that there are other members of the family who could have gone with her. We only received the information later and were angry as we felt that we had wasted our time and that of others. But, sitting here as I write this, I wonder how many of us wanting to be with a loved one at such a time would not lie or hide the truth.

There is a note on the door with information about Machsomwatch which people can photograph. It also informs the Palestinians who can sit and dry out that between 12 and 1pm the soldiers are resting and having their lunch

The sewage behind the toilet is pouring out and also some from the manhole and welcomes people leaving the offices. The weeds are having a wonderful life growing and ignore the terrible stench which surrounds them. Symbolic?