Etzion DCO: A busy shift

 10:30-12:20

We had a very full day and also passed on a load of work to Sylvia.

When we arrived, we saw two vehicles and several men in the area opposite the orchard, looking as though they were surveying ground for a landing strip.  We have seen people there in the past, the question is what sort of criminal action they are planning.

Some men turned to us who arrived at the checkpoint holding transit permits but were not permitted to cross. We gave them the number of Sylvia who heads the MachsomWatch team dealing with blacklisted Palestinians.

We often discover that the Palestinians are not aware of the fact that the longer they postpone paying a fine for traffic violations, the larger the fine grows. A man approached us having come to the DCO to pay a traffic ticket. He tried to pay at Kiryat Arba (the Jewish settler-colony adjacent to Hebron) but for some reason he was not allowed to do so and was sent on to the Etzyon DCO. Here such fines are not accepted. Eventually Shlomit took him to the Alon Shevut settler-colony, where he could not have entered on his own. There was no problem paying there.

Once again, a merchant came to us complaining that he was sent from one post to another and could not manage to be issued an entrance permit into Israel, although his name does not appear on any blacklist and there is no file against him. We gave him Sylvia’s number with the proper instructions for taking care of the red tape in his case.

Merchant transit permits: at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, merchants were no longer being issued transit permits into Israel. Now they are again, but not everyone. Those who do not get them are directed by us to turn to Sylvia.

A contractor arrived, having worked on land belong to another man who holds all the necessary documentation to prove that he is the legal landowner. The man was told he could only farm, not lay cement on the ground in any form that might be considered construction. The army came and stopped him, claiming there were archeological findings there. Where are they? Your guess is as good as mine. Stranger yet – there were two small bulldozers there at the time and the army confiscated the smaller of the two. May one assume that the larger knows how to bypass an ancient structure? The army’s winding logic is hard to follow.

The man spoke with Sylvia but said he prefers to pay the fine rather than deal with the red tape.