Etzion DCL

It was a most infuriating day. We met a man who said he’d been there since 10 am….and yes, we know that Palestinians exaggerate…..but in this case we could well believe it. We arrived at 11 a.m. and the gate was not opened once. We saw one man who had been waiting for at least an hour and could not sneak through as the others, younger and thinner, had done. He eventually had the carousel kindly opened for him . We tried to contact Mohadi both by phone and WhatsApp and there was no reply.

Eventually Shlomit wrote to him saying that the gate had not been opened since 10 and to please open it. She wrote that she did not understand why he wasn’t replying and why people should have to enter like thieves in the night sneaking between the bars, adding that this was not the way the DCO should be operating. By 11.30 we stood next to the carousel and started calling the soldiers, but there was no one at the window. We could hear the soldiers conversing inside. And of course, at 12 o'clock, the soldiers, exhausted by their labors, went to such a well deserved dinner. We also did not see people exiting at any time. We may have missed seeing it but we normally also hear the squeak of the carousel. Since Nadav left we have never had a good response from his successors.

Shlomit phoned the Operations where she was told that they do not speak to citizens, and then told us that the DCO had, the past two days, only been dealing in humanitarian cases. In that case why was there no notice to inform people about this. Added to which, although two humanitarian cases had gone in while we were there, by the time we left, neither had come out. She gave us a number where we could complain but we waited 10 minutes on the line for a response, and then were told politely that our complaint would be passed on. And passed over.

A man who had been in jail as a young boy for one and a half years has been prevented from entering Israel for 17 years, and we heard the same story from another man. They’re both in their 30s, married with children, and have had no other problems. They both said that they’d managed to work in Israel illegally over the years. They were lucky not to have been caught. One of them had a permit for a month and then it was taken away from him with no stated reason.

Two men said that they had been turned back at the checkpoint even though they had permits and, of course, they did not know why. Another man who has worked at Efrat many years arrived at work to find that his permit had expired two days before. The security officer who knew him let him in but after that there was a surprise inspection and he was told to report to the DCO. Again one ask, as he had worked there many years why could the security officer not speak for him?

Another man came to ask for political asylum from the Palestinian Authority. He said he knew of cases where this had been granted. His brother had been taken in the night by the PA who had tortured and raped him.

The women's toilet is locked as it has been for months and there is no water in the cooler.

So what else is new?