So we arrived yesterday morning about 4.30am. The flight was OK but we had our first experience of the Israeli military en route as there was a soldier sitting in front of me (we guessed according to the fact that he and his two mates were all shaven headed, well built and extremely rude). After sitting down, leaning back and basically disrupting my dinner he complained loudly and ended up swearing at me for touching the screen on the back of his chair too hard!

No problems coming into Israel although it took ages and we got a mini bus taxi to Jerusalem. We met the others at the hotel, had breakfast and a shower. Swampy had no sleep but I felt slightly better having slept for two hours or so. We met Christina, who is a volunteer for CADFA, and has been in Palestine for two months teaching English. She explained that she was very angry at what she had seen..as we would soon discover.

We went straight out into Jerusalemand along to the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU). The offices were in a really run down building and their two rooms had hardly any equipment. We were later told that the offices had been raided on many occasions- 6 times in the last three years.

Our guide, Suheil, head of the PGFTU, took us to the centre of Jerusalem where the Al Asqa mosque is located. It's the 3rd most holy place in Islam. Also there is the Wailing Wall (Jewish). A wiered experience as there are Christians and Jews everywhere. Arabs have limited access and have to use a different entrance. We went with Suheil through the Arab quarter and were prevented from entering (all gates are stationed by Israeli soldiers) and told to go to another gate. Arriving there we were told that we could enter but Suheil couldn't. We decided that we would go in and then Suheil was told that he couldn't go back the way he came and had to go around the walls to meet us later.

I'm off to meet some Electricy Workers Unionists so more later for now ....

We met members of the Executive Committee from various affiliated unions, including electricity, transport and construction. They were absolutely inspiring and explained how dire the situation is here in Palestine. I will talk about the details later, suffice to say that union members can no longer afford their dues and the union office hasn't been able to afford its rent for months and months. They are really relying on foreign support.

A delegation of Norwegian trade unionists then arrived at the offices and we had lunch (the best Palestinian olive oil ever tasted- freshly harvested!) and exchanged stories.