Etzion DCL
For some unknown reason, unless of course to make life even more unbearable for the Palestinians, news from an Arabic radio station was BLASTED into the waiting room. If there is a stronger word than BLASTED I would use it. It was unbearable to sit there and, take into consideration, that in the last months there has very rarely been anyone at the window and calling and calling to the unknown soldier has no result whatsoever. Any Palestinian waiting to be called into the GSS has the option of losing his hearing or going outside and not hearing when his name is called. Because there is rarely a soldier to open the turnstile, those thin enough manage to get through the bars but anyone larger has to wait until at least someone will open the turnstile. One wonders what happens when we are not there.
Neither is any notice taken of our attempts by phone or sms to contact anyone. And yet when the army wants to call in the unfortunates who after years of working in Israel are suddenly informed that they are "security risks” and have their permits taken away from them, there is suddenly no problem to call out the names over the loudspeaker. And suddenly also the unbearable blasts of music are silenced for a few minutes. In other words, one can hear the army but when we use our voices whoever or whatever is on the other side is as autistic as he or she is inhuman. I don't want to waste my time repeating myself but time after time we are told by these people who have worked in Israel for years that they are called in with one goal in mind..."You want to go back to working in Israel, work with us."
A gardener from Gilo whose mother works as a nursemaid to a family in Gilo and whose father had worked there too as a gardener until his death, suddenly found himself prevented for no reason that he can think of. We suggested that the family for whom his mother works and also a family whom he said had kind of adopted him, should write letters of recommendations for him. He was very upset. Maybe the humiliation after all the years working in a place in which he felt secure.
Another man who worked seven years at Ashdod also had his permit taken from him. As they say in English "nuff said". He who understands will understand.
A man arrived with his daughter and two children. The daughter's husband works in Greece and the mother who has an Israeli ID, has to apply each time for the children when she visits her family. Another woman has come to get permission to go to Gaza to visit her sick mother and each time she has to bring in more and more documentation to prove that her mother is ill. Today again she waits and says she is very worried. She waited and waited and in the beginning was scared to do so but we showed her how to get in. When she came out, she said she had been told to come tomorrow. We gave her appropriate phone numbers.
There was also the carpenter who had sat in jail because he owned a rifle. We were not sure if it was a hunting rifle or just one for birds. He sat in jail for three months. He has a carpenter shop and works in Israel. He says he often works for ultra-orthodox families in Beitar Illit and he works on the kitchens he makes together with a female architect who is also ultra-orthodox. He makes very fancy beds for children which can run up to 5000 shekel. We saw the pictures. We asked what the men in these families do and he said that they study and do not work.