Nothing new  under the sun except for the evil of the occupation

A man from Batir told  us that he had  many problems. His most pressing was that last year a settler kept coming   with his flock and dogs and harassed the Palestinians . Last year , also, the settlers had come to place a container on their land  and the villagers managed to get rid of them.. He thinks the man is called Lior. But this year the settlers  came  with about eight armed settlers. The villagers came to Gush Etzion and took out the papers which proved their ownership of the area but the army chases them off their land. We gave them the phone number of Yesh Din and also Arik Aschermann.

His other problems is that he has been caught in Israel several times but he served his sentence. He is prevented. We tried to give him Sylvia’s details but he said that he had already approached her some years ago and she had not helped him. We tried to persuade him to do so again telling him that many Palestinians owe their permits to her and her colleagues. But he persisted in refusing to do so so there was little we could do about that. The ball is now in his court.

Another man had bought a permit from some unknown source and, when he tried to go through the checkpoint, it turned out to be forged. He said he was only in prison for one day and put down a bond so as to be released. Since then each time his case comes up , it is put off for a later date. He is prevented until 2027. He also wants to go through to Kalenso to get married. But before we could help him he evidently despaired of us and left.

Two cases of people, one of whom had a  hospital appointment. The one was prevented and had made an appeal. He had been told to come two or three days before the time but had a problem,.  Shlomit told him to make another appointment at least eight days in advance and then apply for a permit.

The second had a court case coming up and had also  been told to come back two or three days before and now he had been told to come the day before.  N. came out and spoke to hi m  and said to come as told,  on the day before, and if there was a problem to tell the soldiers to contact him.