Etzion DCL, Wed 31.10.07, Afternoon

14:00 We first drive to Nebi Yunis to give a man his now-paid-for traffic citation.   Grateful, he offers coffee.  We decline and move on.

14:30   DCL Ezyon.  The shed is empty.  In the parking lot, sitting in his car, is an elegantly dressed man, who introduces himself as the head of the lawyers' bar in Bethlehem.   He is waiting for a permit to visit a friend in Hadassah hospital.  Though he holds a green ID, he is confident that he will get it ("I know the people at the DCL"), though he has been kept waiting since yesterday.   He expresses surprise at our presence and our agenda, and seems reluctant when we ask whether he might cooperate with us on matters of mutual interest.   What we do seems to him puny compared to the major injustice of the occupation itself. 

A simpler man emerges, beaming.   He got a magnetic card!  We give him a ride to Al Nashash, from where he will continue home to Bethlehem.

Bethlehem CP, 15:30.  When we arrive, 2 booths open, no lines.  As lines begin to form, a third booth is opened.  A civilian security man (looking very much like a uniformed soldier) goes about his business with a sour face, but with efficient control.  The workers and the CP personnel cooperate in allowing the very few women to jump the queue and pass

rapidly.