Etzion DCO: During the corona period, the hand is hard on the permits

Monday morning, 10.30 - 12.00

Three people approached us. A man from Italy who came here evidently on holiday and has now got stuck here. He wants to travel around Israel, maybe find some work. One of the Palestinians had told him there was no hope of that but he had not believed him.  Of course with the corona there is no change of that as he was also told at the DCO

The husband of a woman who was   visiting her mother on the West Bank is now not being allowed to re-enter Israel. She is not an Israeli citizen. She is pregnant and has to go for a test in Beit Safafa and unless she can do so she will have to wait another month. But she first has to have a test for Corona.

The third case was a man who got into bad company when he was fifteen and spent time in jail. He is from Jerusalem .  His family were given special permission to live in Israel and they all  have Israeli IDS . Because of the time he spent in jail he has not been received one. He has  a permit A5 which is good  for five years. He has problems getting into Israel as at the checkpoint the soldiers  do not know this pass but once inside has no problems. As always we told him not to go to a lawyer but to contact Sylvia.

A man had a work accident and his arm was very badly cut. He is receiving physiotherapy  at Hadassah but now has to come each time to renew his permit. N. said that maybe he could  get a permit for a few visits at a time

Shlomit got one of the perks of the job. A traffic driver who we have meet before was cleaning his car and in a joke she suggested to them that he cleans hers too. He said he would but only the windows and in the end he cleaned it with a rag and I doubt it has ever been so clean.

The cleaner was furious. The toilets were very clean but he showed us how the catch of the the  door on top  had been broken and I won’t repeat his description of who had he done this.