Bethlehem, Etzion DCL, Thu 8.10.09, Afternoon
12:01 PM Etzion DCL: we arrived at noon. The DCL was deserted. There was a soldier in the reception window and he was courteous, asked whether we had come this time to care for them, because there were no people and it's Thursday, and maybe they will be released earlier.
Somebody came out with a request for a permit to accompany a cancer patient. The applicant is the patient's uncle and he said they told him to wait. Ravy told me that the man had been told to go home. He has no permit because there are permits for the patient's mother and father, received a few days ago.
The young man tried to explain to me why he must have a permit for the uncle, and I tried to say that I have no way to help him. I gave him the phone number of Doctors for Human Rights - perhaps they would have more success. When we checked, we found that we had given him their fax number, but we couldn't find him.
Bethlehem - Checkpoint 300: at the Bethlehem Checkpoint there was nothing to report.
This is the last weekday before the end of the current festival period, until the next festival, until the next closure.
On Sunday, inshallah, life will return to its regular course, and there will again be pressure at the DCL after a week in which they only dealt with special cases.