A brief diary of Palestine:

Monday: The trip from Amman to Bethlehem, a distance of 60 miles, took 11
hours of rather hellish time. The procedures are really not about security
but are still about harassment and frustration of those traveling with
Palestinian documents. A few of us also were delayed and asked to wait
longer than others and never told why the special selection. I was also
selected to go through some unusual machine I felt bad especially about all
the young children and babies in the heat of the Jordan valley. Forced to
endure meaningless waiting until Israeli soldiers decide it is time to go to
the next stop like herded sheep. For some reason, I kept remembering the
stations of the cross. Entering Beit Sahour (my hometown) after an absence
of 15 months though is always enough to make me temporarily forget all of
that (as is my mother's cooking :-). I stayed late at night meeting
relatives and friends and deespite the exhaustion, it was difficult to go to
sleep.

Tuesday: In the morning, I filled out paper work to renew my documents
(expired every three years). While I do have a US passport, Israel does not
allow me in on that passport as I am also a resident of the occupied areas.
These documents are sometimes mislabeled (e.g. "Palestinian Authority
Passport"). Passports are issued by independent states and this is not the
case here. As far as "Palestinian Authority" there is an authority biut it
is not Palestinian. It is still Israeli authorities who determine
everything here including who gets in or out, who gets a passport and who
does not, and even who gets to eat, drink, and have electricity. Yet, life
goes on. I met with so many people (over 50 in the course of this day
alone) exchanging information and ideas. Ofcourse current politics dominate
but other subjects come up. Ofcourse the World Cup is a huge distraction
here. At 10 PM over 300 people gathered to watch the Italy-Germany game.
This was in the very large tent restaurant in Beit Sahour (originally
designed for tourists, now few toursits come). Some Palestinians rooted for
Germany but more apparently were for Italy. It was very spirited. A
Palestinain young man donning the Germany flag struck a conversation with a
girl donning the Italian one. Two Italian nuns drank beer and were rather
animated; jumping up and down with the crowds. We smoked Argila and ate
Mezza and exchanges stories (since I was at a pro-Italy tale I told them
about my recent tour of Italy :-). Cars with flags and loud screams
streamed out after the stunning last 5 minutes were Italy scored two goals
to advance to the finals. For a few hours, all had good time. The night
then settled back. I settled down to watch news after we drove home noting
the lights of the settlements (Efrata and Har Homa) and that unmentionable
monster called the apartheid wall. I noted few people want to talk about
Aljidar Alfasil (the segregation wall) as compared to my conversations last
year. It is almost like few people here also want to talk about cancer
which is also becoming more common here (especially epithelial cancers like
lung, liver, stomach).

Wednesday: My friend Imad Alatrash of the Palestine wildlife society
(http://www.wildlife-pal.org/) took me on a tour of areas destroyed and
areas threatened. We started at a place that was forbidden to us and that I
personally never was able to get in: the site of the former Israeli military
camp in Beit Sahour. As a child I remember seeing the Israeli soldiers
there and as an adult even last year I still saw them there and we could not
get close. Some of the nearby agricultural lands even outside the camp were
off limits to us. It is from this camp that occupation soldiers shot at
Palestinain homes about a hundred yards away. Dozens of homes were damaged,
some friends and relatives injured and terrorized. The camp was cleared by
the military on April 27th this year. Gone were the tanks, APCs, the
military jeeps, and the soldiers. What was left were the bunkers and the
ditches scarring the landscape and some of the fencing. Much of the metals
(wires, fencing etc) was already taken by Palestinians for recycling. This
is now a big thing here as everything of value is recycled, out of economic
neccessity. The feeling I have as I stood on top of that hill videotaping
the area and absorbing the schene cannot be described easily. THe area is
rich in archeological sites and it is still an open area (settlements and
Palestinian buildings are all growing). I thus imagined a park, hiking
trails, trees and a water fountain. I imagined a plaque that would say that
this is the site where an occupation army once stood and then left, where
humanity was reclaimed and that many more sites followed along the path for
freedom throughout Palestine.

Later in the day we visited the site of the foundation for the municipality
new building (which was to house a library and a museum that my grandfather
had dreamed of and donated partially the land and some resources to the city
to do). Unfortunately because of lack of additional money and the political
circumstances, the project was frozen for the past five years. We then
visited a natural site near Bethlehem where Rock Hyrax was recently
discovered by the Palestine Wildlife Society. This was totally unexpected
positive finding. Ofcourse there are also many devastating stories
(including the yet not studied environmental impact of the segregation
wall). If I ever get to work on a new edition of my book "Mammals of the
Holy Land", I am sure it will reflect many distributional changes for wild
mammals.

I will try to send a brief report every few days. I know ofcourse that Gaza
(off limits to me as is Jerusalem) is in much more dire situation than the
West Bank (and even here this area of Bethlehem/Beit Sahour is the more
prosperous and stable). Below are reports from and on Gaza situation. A
luta continua. The struggle continues.

Mazin in Beit Sahour http://qumsiyeh.org
------------
From Gaza, with Love http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza and the Treason of the International Community by Ahmed Amr
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July05/Amr01.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism
http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html

From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html
From Gaza, with Love
http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

A letter from Palestine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13824.htm

Unbreakable spirit of Palestine
http://www.thepencil.org/Palestine/2006/unbreakablespirit.htm

Gaza: 'The children wake up screaming. I am worried it will damage them'
By Donald Macintyre
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1155230.ece

New book 'Hear No Evil' Sisyphus Press on Zionism

http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/hearnoevil.html

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