Etzion DCL

Translation: Naomi Gal

10:35   there are more than 60 men and women in the waiting room. Some told us they arrived at 4 in the morning. There was no soldier on duty at the window. No sound on the speaker calling people in.  We were told that half an hour ago five people were let in but none of them came out yet. We started to make calls. An officer told us there is a problem with the computer and that he handles it. We did not understand why they didn’t bother to communicate it to those waiting.

11:20 the computer problem seems to be solved. Number 12 was let in.

11:20 number 22 went in, followed by 5 people who were admitted.

12:00   a man who arrived at 6.30 and was let in at 9:30 came out.

At noon some people arrived summoned by GSS, they were let in immediately.

Some concerned people approached us and said they had a work permit and then suddenly they were declared as GSS prevented and their permits were canceled. We advised them how to act in order to remove the prevention. One of them said that 40 thousand permits owners were declared “prevented”.  
Two elderly people, one 64 years old, the other aged 75, complained that they were not granted permits to pray in Jerusalem because they are GSS prevented. We referred the first to Hannah’s care and the other one, a UNRWA employee, we referred to UNRWA.    

An older man said he has a backhoe loader. Unfortunately the backhoe loader stood by his cowshed located in the Hebron area; area C. Civil Administration officials saw it and confiscated the backhoe because it had no license plates and no shovel behind. They told him that he could redeem the vessel for NIS 3,900. He said that 10 years ago he went to court to get a permit to operate the backhoe. Back then he paid NIS 2,000 and has been waiting for 10 years for a permit that never arrived. They told him back then that it would take a long time. We turned to the Civil Administration representative, and he said that the company that towed the backhoe charges NIS 3900 for towing, hence the price. The man claimed that transferring a car from Metula to Eilat does not cost as much. He paid NIS 300 to tow a car by a Jerusalemite company to Gush Etzion, which is about the same distance as his backhoe was towed from his house by this company now requiring the absurd amount above.   

13:30 before we left number 44 went in, but only number 25 came out. In the hall approximately 30 people were still waiting.  The officer with whom we spoke promised that people who came today and were not let in will be admitted Thursday before noon.