occupation kills

Morning

I don't really know what's happening out here.. There are nighttime raids around Ramallah, but they have not come in to put the place under siege. Meanwhile, word is that the internationals in Jenin are facing hell.. That is not to speak at all about the locals. After the protest today, I will make my way to Jenin along with my brother and another Canadian. Here's hoping all goes well : )

tarek : )

It's 9am now. Another relatively sleepless night. Yesterday at around suppertime, one of the caretakers of the building we were in came in and made the hand gestures of an explosion. There was a second suicide bombing in Jerusalem in less than 30 hours.. "We're going to eat shit tonight" he said.

The fact that they didn't come into Ramallah the night of the first suicide attack was itself a problem. Big attacks need big planning.. They need mobilization. They need the calling up of reserves. Every night that passed from the day of the bombing pointed to a larger and more permanent invasion..

After the happenings of yesterday, at least some of the Western world were disturbed. How could Palestinians bomb buses? How could they bomb buses with children? Schoolchildren at that! I want to present a little political view on what I see as happening out here..

I have never disagreed with the statement that the killing of civilians is totally and unequivocally wrong. Not "regrettable".. not "disheartening".. WRONG! I tell this to Palestinians, and it makes me unpopular.. I tell it to Israelis, and it makes me unpopular..

So, what of this whole suicide bombing thing? The leader of some armed faction or the other said on the news the other day that he would happily stop using "suicide bombers" if he were allowed to arm like a proper army - F16s, tanks, etc.. I laughed when I heard this, but in thinking about it, one can ask: What are the weapons of the Palestinians?

We're now on the way back to Ramallah. This morning, we woke up to news that a bombing had claimed 17 lives. That's quite a number, even by Israeli-Palestinian standards.. It didn't mean that much to me, though.. What really worried us was that Sharon had visited the site of the bombing. This has never happened before. He has sent deputies and various public figures, but Sharon himself has never gone.. He said something to the effect of "We'll learn 'em".

I guess that's why I'm here, and not in Gaza. There are few internationals left in the West Bank, and none in Ramallah. After a siege, the usual trend is for an instant falloff as people get away from Ramallah and go to other parts of the country to see what else is up.. I'm sure most, if not all, are on their way somewhere right now. One of the biggest decisions that we had to make was where to go.. The most related question to that decision was that of where the bomber came from.. The "usual suspects" will no doubt be hit, and as such were our first choices.. Jenin.. Nablus.. But from what we hear, thems aren't places where we can help. In Jenin, ambulances are fired on regularly.. In Nablus, much the same.. Both Jenin and Nablus are far enough away from the public eye to make such actions both acceptable and sustainable.. Not Ramallah..

Well, we just got into Gaza.. It wasn't too bad, by Palestinian driving standards.. We only had to switch transportation once, and only spent about two hours on a usually 45-minute trip.. not shabby at all, if you ask me..

Sitting here, in our UPMRC (the medical committee)-issued apartment, things seem like they're quite alright.. Life is going on.. it even seems a bit easier than in the West Bank, where the Israeli army comes and goes as it pleases.. Here, if they were coming, it would be like the second coming or something..

I remember a guy who was here a week ago (a guy from the states) told me that on Friday, he saw cars being tailed by apaches, then blown up.. so far, I don't see anything.. but then again, I just got here..

Night

We have made our way to the Ar'roub refugee camp, which is where my grandmother and cousins reside. The trip was relatively unremarkable except for these three little kids who ripped me off in a most professional way. Oh well.. Live and learn.. Other than that, it has been quite a happy day. Everybody with whom we have a blood relation was here today to greet us. I would never have imagined that I would be this content to simply see the family, but I discovered just how important extended family is. The last time I saw my maternal grandmother was seven years ago. Seven years.. She has barely changed, but I guess that's one of those things about old people.

Morning

It's 8am now. I wasn't able to sleep. I didn't really want to. I can hear cars outside, slowly cutting into the slight fog that the night brought. I guess the time wasn't right..

I don't know why I wasn't able to sleep. I don't know why it mattered. I guess I just got to thinking, and that made things difficult. I thought about the medics yesterday huddled behind a mound of dirt. And I thought about the rubber bullets and the sound they made whizzing by. I was no hero. Every time I heard one of those things heading towards us (we had a second or two of notice), I clutched my head and prayed. I prayed for my safety. I prayed for the safety of those around me. I prayed for the safety of everybody. There could be no hubris then. Just fear.

I can't believe how quiet it is. This morning, a girl asked me if I had heard about the 4 suicide bombers hiding out in Ramallah. I immediately dismissed it as BS, which it

I always remembered Fridays as being lazy days in the Middle East.. Usually, one wakes up a little late (which I did, waking up at 9:30ish am), eats a hearty breakfast (which I didn't, but hey..), and then heads off to Friday Prayer..

I had known -- we had all known -- that Fridays were days of some unrest.. After Friday prayer, a rally was called (almost a Friday tradition), and the people assembled. There weren't many of us.. Only about a hundred or two hundred people, but we marched as though we were thousands, from the mosque, through the city square, and to an Israeli checkpoint that closed Ramallah off from other areas of the West Bank. I didn't expect that there would be any escalation, despite having before heard in the foreign media when I was in Canada that "Friday protests" were often the immediate precursor of heavier fighting.. Still, I figured it might be a good idea to put on my UPMRC jacket.

We woke up this morning to a completely different set of faces. These were the "everyday" workers in the UPMRC offices, not the usual folk who we saw