July 20, 2003

An Arab town in northern Israel, just across the Green Line from the West Bank.

We knew the Salem offices would be open again today, so we left again, missing church - it seems that we're often wrestling with Israeli bureaucracy on Sundays. After five hours, let's just say we had enough to write about - which was not the original intention, of course. Marthame was acting as the go-between, being both male and foreign giving him some measure of leeway.

At one point, he asked the soldier, "How much longer is it going to take?"

"Not much longer."

"You mean, not much longer, like ten minutes, or not much longer, like two hours?"

"The soldier laughed, "No! Not two hours!"

Two hours later, Marthame was talking with the same soldier.

"It won't be much longer."

"If it's not ready in five minutes, I'm walking out."

To our surprise, the soldier went to find out what the status of the application was.

"It's incomplete. There's no letter from her doctor here."

"You mean to tell me that we've been waiting here five hours for an incomplete application? You couldn't tell me this when we turned in the application, or any of the dozen other times I asked you about it?"

"Well, you see we have a process, and..."

Marthame had little patience for process at this point. "Your process is nonsense!"

"It's not nonsense. We have to..."

"If it's not nonsense, then I would have a permission paper in my hand right now."

With that, we left, dangling between the fence and the trench once more for old time's sake. We went back towards Jenin, stopping for a brief ID check at a checkpoint before having lunch in Jenin (in one of the few places with air conditioning) to try and forget the day's troubles. We all went home, our poor little brains and bodies fried and dried from a day in the sun and dust.

We had planned to go back to Birzeit in the morning, but the possibility of getting the permission today helped us decide to delay. For nothing. Did we mention how infuriating this place can be? And this is for the people who are trying to get permission, trying to go the legal route. And for doing so, for kowtowing to this illegal Occupation and its illegal laws, for playing along, they are punished. Ugh. We certainly feel punished today.