knitting for peace: They get knocked down but they get up again

[imagine this on Fabian way, anybody? It is the only road into a Palestinian village: making any cars left inside rather pointless)

We went out with Abu Hassim on his political tour of Jerusalem this morning - you can imagine that the Israelis make running this business really easy for him. It was gruelling to say the least.

My personal worst moment - I couldn't film or photograph what was happening for obvious reasons - so I will bung it in the blog before it falls out of the close to overloaded brain. We spent some of the tour trying not to cry too obviously. (I was doing pretty well until tonight when something daft set me off in a Palestinian restaurant. Liz is becoming aquainted with my sentimental and superstitious sides).

We went through a Palestinian suburb of East Jerusalem through which the wall runs - right down the middle of the main street, dividing the inhabitants from each other. The road then ends in a huge pile of Israeli dumped rubble, the end of what was the road to Ramallah - the detour through residential streets winds miles out of the way (part of the maze of blocks, detours, gates and checkpoints that the Israelis are creating for Palestinians - and this is nothing to do with dividing Israel from the West Bank for 'security' reasons - it is clearly to fragment and divide the Palestinian population within their own city).

[People squeezing through a gate that dissects their neighbourhood - completion of the wall may close this permanently]

So, in the maze we came across a Palestinian truck trying to do a 3 point turn down a tiny road which was never designed for this kind of traffic. His job was made harder by the Israeli jeep parked in the way, with its door wide open, blocking the road. The soldiers inside were ignoring the situation completely. The truck driver and his mate just carried on patiently maneuvering around the jeep. We sat there fuming at this arrogant, pointless obstructiveness and the humiliation it seemed designed to provoke.

This is what is left of some chap's house:

The iniquitous Israeli designed planning laws tie Palestinians into catch 22 situations with their housing. Many have given up trying to comply and build anyway - unable to afford the average 10 years and 100.000 shekels that a licence will cost them. The insecurity of saving and waiting is then replaced by the insecurity of whose house the IDF are coming to bulldoze next. We saw a few squashed flat.

What may strike you as particularly incomprehensible is that this is happening in East Jerusalem - which is not part of Israel. Under international law it belongs to the Palestinians. What we witnessed today is that the Israeli state can act with absolute impunity.

Anyway back to our friend and his squashed house:

This is the pile of blocks ready to begin rebuilding - for the third time!