This part of the Wall ran through the main street of Abu-Dis.Sunday, November 4, 2007
Thursday, November 1, 2007
the wall as an after thought
I just wanted to add that the effect of the wall is slowly destroying everything here...women giving birth at checkpoints because they can't reach hospital, families being split up, people losing their citizenship because they lived on the wrong side for too long and the whole disgusting blatant land grab means stopping this being extended and getting what's there (it's huge) is vital. Please check out stopthewall.com for more.
Jon's blog for today
Thursday
Inspired by the comments of my comrades back in the office, I again sit in front of a $4 keyboard with Arabic keys to report our stories from the occupied territories. As you might have guessed the trip is taking its toll on my mental well being; Jesie is without shame and hesitation, the solidarity of the English is no longer welcome! In truth I would have Jess for tea any day rather than attempt a check point crossing. Today we went through 3 check points and never left Palestinian land, how does that work? But check points aside today was a less harrowing than our trip yesterday, though the start of the day brought home to us how the wall effects the young Palestinians.
Our first visit of the day took us to a boys school on the outskirts of Abu-Dis, the school brought home to us both the contempt that the Israelis hold for the Palestinians and resistance of the Palestinians. The school sat on a busy road through Abu-Dis to the rear of the school stood the familiar site of the 8m high concrete wall running through the football pitch and playground of the school. “this was not as bad as it used to be” the wall used to to run right up to the wall of the school removing all of the play area, but campaigns, protests and lobbying forced the Israeli state to move it back and give back some of the play area. Taken to the roof of the school we soon inhaled the full extent of the wall, from the right the wall snaked in from the centre of Abu-Dis coming in behind the school and extending out for many miles to the left, returning round again in the distance to encircle a settlement, on the Israeli side stood woodland and significant land prior to the start of the first housing, on the Palestinian side stood within feet housing, amenities and the school we were standing on. This would not end our view of the wall, though we stayed on Palestinian land throughout the day – the way was never far away.
Our next visit took us to the campaign group Stop the Wall on our way to Ramallah, a group consisting of about 10 fulltime employees with a further 500 hundred volunteers. Sadley to say this was the first group or organization we visited that actually looked like a pro active group, computers, wall charts with SMART objectives etc. The Secretary of the organization gave us a powerful presentation on the growing segregation, division and acquisition of the Palestinian state. For the first time we were shown maps of the West Bank that started to show how the wall had taken land, that ‘security’ justified further taking of land, how the building of Israeli only roads cutting through the West Bank is and would further reduce the state of Palestine. We were shown how the West Bank through both existing, under construction and planned roads would reduce the Palestinian state into 3 diminishing areas, diminishing as the crusade of security would increasingly force the Palestinian people into the centre of the land. The issue of security is such a prevalent discourse, security being the justification for all action against the Palestinians, as one Palestinian put it “what about social SECURITY, what about job SECURITRY what about economic SECURITY, the only ones who are secure are the Israelis”.
On leaving this group armed with hours of PowerPoint presentations for our eager comrades back home we proceeded on to Ramallah, along the way we were shown from the road the prison camp that thousands of Palestinian people are housed, and where the throwing of one stone will buy you 8 months, with food prepared by the caring hands of Israeli criminal prisoners (mmm…..book me a table) on crossing through our second check point and again having to explain how we were atheists we proceeded to to meet trade unionists who were engaged in some trade union education. On arrival we joined the tutor setting up a role-play, the reps were preparing a role-play around the improving of a collective agreement, incorporating increased facility time and health and safety (are you listening London?). on engaging in the role-play 8 reps started to shout point, stand and throw their chairs to the ground all of which was done while smoking, even the tutor was smoking!! we stayed here for several hours, exchanged emails and spoke of the hope of working jointly in the future.
From the education course we went to a paper converting factory, a factory making toilet roles and tissues etc. like the Quarry and stone factories we heard stories of Palestinian companies trying to send goods across Palestine, of lorries that were forced to unload their goods at checkpoints and reload, while all the time Israeli goods only slowed for the checkpoints. The trade union official at the plant told us of how this hassle was adding 80% to the marginal costs, and threatening the survival of the plant. If these costs were not bad enough, Israelis were flooding the market with cheaper produce. Once again we were told of the troops on the checkpoint arbitrarily deciding to even let the lorries through at all. This visit ended on rather a somber note: the union leader told us that many had visited, many had expressed their sadness and regret, from trade union delegations, overseas business leaders overseas politicians, yet from all these visits to the factory and Palestine no feelings of sorrow or understanding had spread into the political sphere, where the omnipotent Israeli propaganda machine reduces all Palestinians to barbaric terrorists, and the Israelis as perpetual victims. And this is a serious point there is without a doubt a story that is not being told here, I know for myself when the issue of Palestine arises in branch meetings I have voted in favour of affiliation with PSC or other groups, but I have failed to really grasp the extent of Palestinian oppression or the sheer determination of the Israeli government to remove the Palestinians from their houses, their shops and to split families up – there is without a doubt a story that rarely forms the print of our newspapers or the prompts on Snows news broadcasts. Everywhere news, but so rarely the truth.
Our last trip of the day took us to the PGFTU Education offices where we met brave and noble educators like myself, we heard of the programme they had put togther, how organizing was an important factor
Inspired by the comments of my comrades back in the office, I again sit in front of a $4 keyboard with Arabic keys to report our stories from the occupied territories. As you might have guessed the trip is taking its toll on my mental well being; Jesie is without shame and hesitation, the solidarity of the English is no longer welcome! In truth I would have Jess for tea any day rather than attempt a check point crossing. Today we went through 3 check points and never left Palestinian land, how does that work? But check points aside today was a less harrowing than our trip yesterday, though the start of the day brought home to us how the wall effects the young Palestinians.
Our first visit of the day took us to a boys school on the outskirts of Abu-Dis, the school brought home to us both the contempt that the Israelis hold for the Palestinians and resistance of the Palestinians. The school sat on a busy road through Abu-Dis to the rear of the school stood the familiar site of the 8m high concrete wall running through the football pitch and playground of the school. “this was not as bad as it used to be” the wall used to to run right up to the wall of the school removing all of the play area, but campaigns, protests and lobbying forced the Israeli state to move it back and give back some of the play area. Taken to the roof of the school we soon inhaled the full extent of the wall, from the right the wall snaked in from the centre of Abu-Dis coming in behind the school and extending out for many miles to the left, returning round again in the distance to encircle a settlement, on the Israeli side stood woodland and significant land prior to the start of the first housing, on the Palestinian side stood within feet housing, amenities and the school we were standing on. This would not end our view of the wall, though we stayed on Palestinian land throughout the day – the way was never far away.
Our next visit took us to the campaign group Stop the Wall on our way to Ramallah, a group consisting of about 10 fulltime employees with a further 500 hundred volunteers. Sadley to say this was the first group or organization we visited that actually looked like a pro active group, computers, wall charts with SMART objectives etc. The Secretary of the organization gave us a powerful presentation on the growing segregation, division and acquisition of the Palestinian state. For the first time we were shown maps of the West Bank that started to show how the wall had taken land, that ‘security’ justified further taking of land, how the building of Israeli only roads cutting through the West Bank is and would further reduce the state of Palestine. We were shown how the West Bank through both existing, under construction and planned roads would reduce the Palestinian state into 3 diminishing areas, diminishing as the crusade of security would increasingly force the Palestinian people into the centre of the land. The issue of security is such a prevalent discourse, security being the justification for all action against the Palestinians, as one Palestinian put it “what about social SECURITY, what about job SECURITRY what about economic SECURITY, the only ones who are secure are the Israelis”.
On leaving this group armed with hours of PowerPoint presentations for our eager comrades back home we proceeded on to Ramallah, along the way we were shown from the road the prison camp that thousands of Palestinian people are housed, and where the throwing of one stone will buy you 8 months, with food prepared by the caring hands of Israeli criminal prisoners (mmm…..book me a table) on crossing through our second check point and again having to explain how we were atheists we proceeded to to meet trade unionists who were engaged in some trade union education. On arrival we joined the tutor setting up a role-play, the reps were preparing a role-play around the improving of a collective agreement, incorporating increased facility time and health and safety (are you listening London?). on engaging in the role-play 8 reps started to shout point, stand and throw their chairs to the ground all of which was done while smoking, even the tutor was smoking!! we stayed here for several hours, exchanged emails and spoke of the hope of working jointly in the future.
From the education course we went to a paper converting factory, a factory making toilet roles and tissues etc. like the Quarry and stone factories we heard stories of Palestinian companies trying to send goods across Palestine, of lorries that were forced to unload their goods at checkpoints and reload, while all the time Israeli goods only slowed for the checkpoints. The trade union official at the plant told us of how this hassle was adding 80% to the marginal costs, and threatening the survival of the plant. If these costs were not bad enough, Israelis were flooding the market with cheaper produce. Once again we were told of the troops on the checkpoint arbitrarily deciding to even let the lorries through at all. This visit ended on rather a somber note: the union leader told us that many had visited, many had expressed their sadness and regret, from trade union delegations, overseas business leaders overseas politicians, yet from all these visits to the factory and Palestine no feelings of sorrow or understanding had spread into the political sphere, where the omnipotent Israeli propaganda machine reduces all Palestinians to barbaric terrorists, and the Israelis as perpetual victims. And this is a serious point there is without a doubt a story that is not being told here, I know for myself when the issue of Palestine arises in branch meetings I have voted in favour of affiliation with PSC or other groups, but I have failed to really grasp the extent of Palestinian oppression or the sheer determination of the Israeli government to remove the Palestinians from their houses, their shops and to split families up – there is without a doubt a story that rarely forms the print of our newspapers or the prompts on Snows news broadcasts. Everywhere news, but so rarely the truth.
Our last trip of the day took us to the PGFTU Education offices where we met brave and noble educators like myself, we heard of the programme they had put togther, how organizing was an important factor
More about Wednesday
We looked at the mosque from the outside (through the fences and barbed wire of course) and could see the Jewish side. One half has been turned into a synagogue. I'm not sure if it was always like that but there was loads of Jewish people coming out from their prayers. Obviously not coming our way but along their own roads to their part of protected town.
We walked back through the market past the sniper points and closed shops and I thought about how the city ended up like this. There has obviously (and we were told about it) a huge military strike to take this city with people including children being shot and killed and there is still a feeling of fear. It seems that it's a 'quiet' time at the moment but people are aware that they could easily be under attack again at any time. The reason they don't bomb it from helicopters any more is because of the settlers who are living on top of the Palestinian community. A new looking school that was build not long ago by the Palestinians has been taken over by Israelis who now use it.
Again we were treated to a huge lunch of delicious food and Palestinian hospitality. People here are really generous in spirit and meeting Sharifa and the people from Hebron is a perfect example of their resiliance in the face of pure agony.
I stayed up talking to Abed about his times in prison. He was in solitary once for a month and we talked about what he thought about at that time. We discussed Guantanamo bay and the prisons in US and how there were so many similarities in the methods used that it seemed obvious that they were linked. He told me about prisoner being taken from their homes and blindfolded, stripped naked and locked up without trial for months. He told me about one man who, when he was examined by the prison doctor on arrival, was told that he had a heart problems and needed urgent drugs or he would die. He believed them and after a day or two he cracked and told gave them a (untrue) statement. They bribed him with the medication to extract information. Eventually when he was released he was examined by his own doctor who told him that they had been lying and it was a kind of psychological torture. Everyone here has such terrible stories and thinking about all those young people in prison now being tortured makes me feel sick.
Anyway, Jon has written today's events so I'll post them now. I'm feeling a bit down this evening after visiting a school that has been cut in half by the wall and where the kids were tear gassed and shot at by the police. One ten year old girl was killed. This is the reality here and it is not history, it's living. We have to get this out to as many people as possbile because what we hear in Europe is not the truth.
We walked back through the market past the sniper points and closed shops and I thought about how the city ended up like this. There has obviously (and we were told about it) a huge military strike to take this city with people including children being shot and killed and there is still a feeling of fear. It seems that it's a 'quiet' time at the moment but people are aware that they could easily be under attack again at any time. The reason they don't bomb it from helicopters any more is because of the settlers who are living on top of the Palestinian community. A new looking school that was build not long ago by the Palestinians has been taken over by Israelis who now use it.
Again we were treated to a huge lunch of delicious food and Palestinian hospitality. People here are really generous in spirit and meeting Sharifa and the people from Hebron is a perfect example of their resiliance in the face of pure agony.
I stayed up talking to Abed about his times in prison. He was in solitary once for a month and we talked about what he thought about at that time. We discussed Guantanamo bay and the prisons in US and how there were so many similarities in the methods used that it seemed obvious that they were linked. He told me about prisoner being taken from their homes and blindfolded, stripped naked and locked up without trial for months. He told me about one man who, when he was examined by the prison doctor on arrival, was told that he had a heart problems and needed urgent drugs or he would die. He believed them and after a day or two he cracked and told gave them a (untrue) statement. They bribed him with the medication to extract information. Eventually when he was released he was examined by his own doctor who told him that they had been lying and it was a kind of psychological torture. Everyone here has such terrible stories and thinking about all those young people in prison now being tortured makes me feel sick.
Anyway, Jon has written today's events so I'll post them now. I'm feeling a bit down this evening after visiting a school that has been cut in half by the wall and where the kids were tear gassed and shot at by the police. One ten year old girl was killed. This is the reality here and it is not history, it's living. We have to get this out to as many people as possbile because what we hear in Europe is not the truth.
Day 3 continued
The soldiers asked us if we were Christian and we said no. They asked if we were Jewish and we said no. They asked us what were we and we said Atheist and they looked confused and shook their heads. They said prayer was on so we couldn't go in. Our friends could go in to pray as they were Muslim but we wanted to go together so we decided not to go in. Sharifa said that this was not the rules of the mosque but the rules of the soldiers. Again, just made up difficulties for the Palestinians. They are definitely not keen on us getting a non-Israeli viewpoint.
What we did on day 3 (Wednesday)
We are finally catching up on the blog situation. I am now going to write yesterday's blog and Jon will write what we did today..both days have been immensely moving and exciting at the same time. We managed to see the Israeli occupation up close, which was terrifying and desperately sad. I broke down on several occasions and it just feels surreal to be here and experience even for a week the way things are here. It is like one giant prison. I heard last night that one of our friend's wife has had her blue Jerusalem ID taken away. He has a green pass and they have been living separately for years. They have been trying to get his ID upgraded but the end result, after numerous attempts through the court is that she now has no ID at all and her only options are to live illegally in the West Bank with no ID or to move the family to Jordan forever. Basically the whole of the West Bank is no bigger than London and people are restricted so much in their movement that they barely move from the areas they live in. Every is surrounded by barbed wire, fences, walls and soldiers...just like a massive prison.
Yesterday we went to Hebron. At the end of the day we sat down as a group and wrote down what stuck out in our minds so I'm going to write something from each of the headlines we wrote and hope it all makes sense.
We took a usual taxi through the usual waiting at check points and being scrutinised by the soldiers, all of whom are around the age of 20 and waving kalashnikovs with others hiding in camoflaguged (you try and spell it!) cement towers or armoured vehicles. Entering the city of Hebron is immediatlely disturbing as it is clear that the city is completely divided, with Jewish settlements on either side of the old town, which is Palestinian. We went to a community centre where there works an artist who tries to sell his art and were also greeted by our fantastic guide for the day Sharifa, who is a member of the travel and tourism union. We took to her straight aaway as she is a lively and hilarious character, full of life.
We walked through the centre of the city which was bustling and busy- the drivers here are all mad and the pedestrians aren't any saner! We were taken first to a medical centre, the first in the West Bank that supplies occupational therapy equipment and wheelchairs etc as well as home care professionals and nurses to people who are immobile at home. It was very impressive and the guy who runs it was very proud, as were his staff. After the usual rounds of Turkish coffee and mint tea we had a tour of the centre. The services are not free and as a result of course those who get them are a limited number, although the Palestinian Authority do pay for some and some people have medical insurance. Nevertheless, it is better than nothing.
On to the PGFTU offices of Hebron where we had an interesting speech by the Gen. Sec. who mentioned Blair's visit (we weren't sure if he was joking) and the peace process a bit too much, saying how dedicated they were to it. Anyway, the delegation from the Palestinian side grew and grew and at our final meeting there were around 16 trade unionists from various unions, including a man in his 80s who still had his ID from 1948. He showed us a British one pound note that he was really proud of and talked of the British occupation. Nandita talked to him later, hoping to get some kind of idea of what it was like and he said that he liked British people because he loved King George! She didn't know quite how to respond! We were presented with PGFTU plates and had our photos taken ... under a massive poster of Yasser Arafat, which was a highlight and an honour. The whole thing was great. The whole thing was great. A bit different from the English way of doing things in that mobiles phones constantly go off and people answer them regardless, even the person addressing the meeting, and have conversations! Also, everyone smokes incessantly (even a bit too much for me- the most disturbing was the man in the hospital in charge of the blood donation unit sitting at his lab with a fag in his mouth!) and also people just coming into the room and shaking hands with everyone and speaking loudly ignoring the fact that someone might be making an impassioned speech!
We then left to go to the old city. We walked past the old Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation building, which had bullet holes all over it and was derelict. The whole city was under siege five years ago and was shelled to bits by the Israeli army. Helicopters attacks were common and the whole place had a feeling of tension about it. As we walked through the busy market of fruit and veg people were shouting out "welcome" to us and waving. The market became smaller and samller and there were less and less stalls. Sharifa told us that we were approaching the end of the market- basically where the wall had been built right across it and the atmosphere was more and more tense as we went on. Towards the wall more and more shops were boarded up and there were less and less people. Sharifa said that people were scared to come to this bit of the market now beacuse of what had happened and we soon found out why. The Israelis have taken either side of the town by force, hence the bombardments over the last few years and so the market, which was once enormously vibrant and the centre of town, is now surrounded by Jewish settlements. They are completely protected by barbed wire and sniper towers. Sharifa showed us the old bus station where all the buses for the centre of town stopped. It is now blocked by barbed wire and no one can get near it. The market lanes are very thin and there are snipers on the corners of lots of the buildings when you look up. We were stopped by one man who took us down a market alley where his shop used to be. On the main street there people had put nets between the buildings and he told us this is to stop the settlers throwing stones and rubbish at them. Looking up you can see nappies and bags of rubbish that the settlers have thrown out of their windows on the Palestinians below. All the shops were boarded up here and the Israeli soldiers had welded the locks shut. As we walked down towards the wall the man told us that Israeli soldiers had been pissing on the heads of Palestinian women from the building tops. This broke me down as the feeling of human degradation was too much. We went past the old town hall which is now closed and a gap between the buildings revealed the main Israeli security building. Sharifa told us not to go too close to the barbed wire as people had been shot there many times.
We went to the Christian Peace Makers building, where there were some English women who had been there for around 12 years. Their sole purpose is to prevent war and violence and they had often stood in front of soldiers who were trying to open fire on Palestinian people. One of their regular jobs now is to escort the children of the old city to school (with soldiers in tow) as the settlers had been throwing rocks at them. We went up on their roof and it was the clearest view yet of the occupation. Both sides of the building were clean Jewish settlements with a slither of Palestinian decrepit buildings in the middle. Our friends pointed out what used to be their parents shops and where they went to look at the birds in the market as kids. It is all boarded up now. On the roof tops there are Israeli soldiers with huge guns and were told not to point or take photos in the direction of the security building. Sharifa went to one side of the building and stood quietly for a while. On the other side of the wall, where she can't go now, is a muslim cemetary where her mother is buried. It was incredibly sad and the worst feeling of all is the helplessness- it is too dangerous to get angry with the Israeli soldiers and their machine guns. They are hiding all over ther city and you are being watched wherever you go. It is the closest to a war zone I have ever felt.
We walked back feeling heavy and attempted to go the Ibrahim mosque. There were soldiers walking through the alleys with machine guns pulling up a group of young boys around the age of ten. Their friends who were watching were giggling as they saw us..this was obviously a common situation. To get to the mosque we had to go through a heavily guarded check point on foot,which was really scary. There was another check point at the entrance to the mosqu with 3 soldiers, one who looked about 12.
Yesterday we went to Hebron. At the end of the day we sat down as a group and wrote down what stuck out in our minds so I'm going to write something from each of the headlines we wrote and hope it all makes sense.
We took a usual taxi through the usual waiting at check points and being scrutinised by the soldiers, all of whom are around the age of 20 and waving kalashnikovs with others hiding in camoflaguged (you try and spell it!) cement towers or armoured vehicles. Entering the city of Hebron is immediatlely disturbing as it is clear that the city is completely divided, with Jewish settlements on either side of the old town, which is Palestinian. We went to a community centre where there works an artist who tries to sell his art and were also greeted by our fantastic guide for the day Sharifa, who is a member of the travel and tourism union. We took to her straight aaway as she is a lively and hilarious character, full of life.
We walked through the centre of the city which was bustling and busy- the drivers here are all mad and the pedestrians aren't any saner! We were taken first to a medical centre, the first in the West Bank that supplies occupational therapy equipment and wheelchairs etc as well as home care professionals and nurses to people who are immobile at home. It was very impressive and the guy who runs it was very proud, as were his staff. After the usual rounds of Turkish coffee and mint tea we had a tour of the centre. The services are not free and as a result of course those who get them are a limited number, although the Palestinian Authority do pay for some and some people have medical insurance. Nevertheless, it is better than nothing.
On to the PGFTU offices of Hebron where we had an interesting speech by the Gen. Sec. who mentioned Blair's visit (we weren't sure if he was joking) and the peace process a bit too much, saying how dedicated they were to it. Anyway, the delegation from the Palestinian side grew and grew and at our final meeting there were around 16 trade unionists from various unions, including a man in his 80s who still had his ID from 1948. He showed us a British one pound note that he was really proud of and talked of the British occupation. Nandita talked to him later, hoping to get some kind of idea of what it was like and he said that he liked British people because he loved King George! She didn't know quite how to respond! We were presented with PGFTU plates and had our photos taken ... under a massive poster of Yasser Arafat, which was a highlight and an honour. The whole thing was great. The whole thing was great. A bit different from the English way of doing things in that mobiles phones constantly go off and people answer them regardless, even the person addressing the meeting, and have conversations! Also, everyone smokes incessantly (even a bit too much for me- the most disturbing was the man in the hospital in charge of the blood donation unit sitting at his lab with a fag in his mouth!) and also people just coming into the room and shaking hands with everyone and speaking loudly ignoring the fact that someone might be making an impassioned speech!
We then left to go to the old city. We walked past the old Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation building, which had bullet holes all over it and was derelict. The whole city was under siege five years ago and was shelled to bits by the Israeli army. Helicopters attacks were common and the whole place had a feeling of tension about it. As we walked through the busy market of fruit and veg people were shouting out "welcome" to us and waving. The market became smaller and samller and there were less and less stalls. Sharifa told us that we were approaching the end of the market- basically where the wall had been built right across it and the atmosphere was more and more tense as we went on. Towards the wall more and more shops were boarded up and there were less and less people. Sharifa said that people were scared to come to this bit of the market now beacuse of what had happened and we soon found out why. The Israelis have taken either side of the town by force, hence the bombardments over the last few years and so the market, which was once enormously vibrant and the centre of town, is now surrounded by Jewish settlements. They are completely protected by barbed wire and sniper towers. Sharifa showed us the old bus station where all the buses for the centre of town stopped. It is now blocked by barbed wire and no one can get near it. The market lanes are very thin and there are snipers on the corners of lots of the buildings when you look up. We were stopped by one man who took us down a market alley where his shop used to be. On the main street there people had put nets between the buildings and he told us this is to stop the settlers throwing stones and rubbish at them. Looking up you can see nappies and bags of rubbish that the settlers have thrown out of their windows on the Palestinians below. All the shops were boarded up here and the Israeli soldiers had welded the locks shut. As we walked down towards the wall the man told us that Israeli soldiers had been pissing on the heads of Palestinian women from the building tops. This broke me down as the feeling of human degradation was too much. We went past the old town hall which is now closed and a gap between the buildings revealed the main Israeli security building. Sharifa told us not to go too close to the barbed wire as people had been shot there many times.
We went to the Christian Peace Makers building, where there were some English women who had been there for around 12 years. Their sole purpose is to prevent war and violence and they had often stood in front of soldiers who were trying to open fire on Palestinian people. One of their regular jobs now is to escort the children of the old city to school (with soldiers in tow) as the settlers had been throwing rocks at them. We went up on their roof and it was the clearest view yet of the occupation. Both sides of the building were clean Jewish settlements with a slither of Palestinian decrepit buildings in the middle. Our friends pointed out what used to be their parents shops and where they went to look at the birds in the market as kids. It is all boarded up now. On the roof tops there are Israeli soldiers with huge guns and were told not to point or take photos in the direction of the security building. Sharifa went to one side of the building and stood quietly for a while. On the other side of the wall, where she can't go now, is a muslim cemetary where her mother is buried. It was incredibly sad and the worst feeling of all is the helplessness- it is too dangerous to get angry with the Israeli soldiers and their machine guns. They are hiding all over ther city and you are being watched wherever you go. It is the closest to a war zone I have ever felt.
We walked back feeling heavy and attempted to go the Ibrahim mosque. There were soldiers walking through the alleys with machine guns pulling up a group of young boys around the age of ten. Their friends who were watching were giggling as they saw us..this was obviously a common situation. To get to the mosque we had to go through a heavily guarded check point on foot,which was really scary. There was another check point at the entrance to the mosqu with 3 soldiers, one who looked about 12.
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