Etzion DCL
We arrived around 1:20 pm. The weather is clear and cold. There are not many people in the waiting hall. Two messages are hanging on the wall. One announces that magnetic cards will be issued here at the beginning of this week to those whose ID address is Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour. Everyone else is asked to go to Tarkumia.
The second message indicates that between the 22nd and 30th of the month magnetic cards will not be issued, one should use DCL in Tarkumia or Qalandia. Despite the sign, our colleagues later reported that at least on December 24, magnetic cards were indeed issued ...
Most of the people were waiting for magnetic cards. For about the hour we were there, the numbers on the screen went from 131 to 150. The police officer was apparently not there because the number in line for the policeman did not change during our stay.
Several people contacted us with various problems, and we explained what could be done, including distributing cards with Sylvia's phone and fax numbers and the team handling preventions.
One of the men who consulted with us beforehand, accompanied by two friends, asked if they could catch a ride with us to Efrat. We agreed, of course, after all, that wasn't big deal for us, we dropped them off on our way at one of the stops on Route 60. The three were very excited about the gesture and said that even their people refused to give them a ride. Along the way, it turned out that the problem of the prevented man was a bit more complex. He was previously arrested by the Palestinian Authority. They suspected him of having a weapon. But he did not. He was tried and was acquitted, the problem is that the security coordination functions in a way that if the Authority suspects someone has a weapon it reports to the Israeli GSS, which immediately imposes prevention from entering Israel. But once the person is acquitted the report somehow gets stuck on its way and the prevention prevails… So, we instructed the man to bring a "certificate of integrity" from the Authority and the acquittal verdict, in the hope that it would help remove the prevention.
We left after about an hour.