A Hodgepodge of Palestine May 24-25, 2011

I have a hodgepodge to share with you after a couple of days of doing business in Bethlehem and Ramallah. It does not all connnect, but that is life...

Janice with a fruit vendor at the Ramallah outdoor market. 
Many young Palestinians ask tourists to take their pictures.

Roof top water tanks
Yesterday Dr. Adel Yahya from the Palestinian Association for Cultural Exchange (PACE) was bringing an American activist on a tour of Bethlehem and Hebron.  I was able to hitch a ride with them from El Bireh to Beit Sahour in order to do business.  Adel has a wealth of information about Palestine, its culture, its history, its economy, and its politics to share.  On top of that, he is an archaeologist, so he can explain all the archaeological features as we drive.  On the drive out of Ramallah, he gave us a lesson on the water tanks that you see on the roofs of the buildings throughout Palestine.

Black water tanks adorn most roofs in Palestine

I found a great explanation of why these tanks exist, which matches Adal's explanation. It is from Israel and the West Bank: Initial Thoughts on My Meetings With Key Media, Business and Political Leaders written on May 10th, 2011 by Jeff Pozmantier.

It is a [Palestinian] desire... to not depend on Israel to supply and control your water. That water is now delivered only at specified times and then stored by Palestinian families in their roof top water tanks, always hopeful that their limited supply lasts until the next distribution date. Water scarcity is one of the reasons why toilet paper is customarily deposited in a trash receptacle and not flushed. It’s why ice is rarely supplied with drinks. It’s why anyone selling yard supplies would go bankrupt. And it’s also why several officials and individuals told us that the next uprising in the West Bank may be over an Israeli plan to further limit the frequency of water distribution this summer.

The roof top water tanks will hold either 1000 or 2000 liters.  The water in them is delivered in a truck and then pumped up to the roof top tank.  The water must be filtered before using.

If you are not a city dweller and own property, Israel still controls your water use by telling you how deep you can dig your well and how much water you are permitted to take from your well.  Israel puts a meter on your well, gives you a quota of water you are permitted to use, and will close the well if you go over your quota.  This applies to Palestinians (not to settlers) in all areas of Palestine, even in the areas which are supposedly under Palestinian Authority control.

On the other hand, Israelis don't face the same sort of restrictions and Israel has dug very deep wells in the Judean desert to bring water up for the desert settlements, which flaunt grass and pools - amenities which are not possible under the water restrictions faced by Palestinians.


International Aid: Making it look good

"Our priorities are your priorities" 

There is a public relations war on now between USAID and the EU.  USAID erects prominent signs on their projects around the West Bank.  Now when you enter Ramallah you see several  different EU billboards advertizing their good deeds and intentions.  Palestinians, who have a long history of dealings with aid organizations, remain cynical and question whether these governments are spending more on the billboards then on their projects.  In any case, much USAID money is now being spent to improve the infamous Wadi al Nar road which snakes through the Judean desert from the Ramallah to Bethlehem districts, on the east side of Jerusalem.  This is the road that Palestinians must take to travel between the north and south West Bank.  "Wadi al Nar" means "The Valley of Fire".  It was so named because in ancient times garbage was thrown here and burned, so looking from a distance one would see a valley of fire.  The bible claims that sinners will be thrown in Wadi al Nar and the good will go to Wadi Artas (paradise), which is a beautiful and lush area south of Bethlehem where King David wrote psalms.

Now, road improvements usually sound good, however,the improvement of the Wadi al Nar road  is a continuation of US policy.  The US has given billiions of dollars to building and improving roads that help to sustain the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.  Palestinians, in the early 1990s, used to take a major road straight from Ramallah to Bethlehem.   It was a much shorter, safer, and  faster road than the Wadi al Nar road.  Then Israel, with US financial support created separate networks of roads through the West Bank: one set of roads for Israelis, one for Palestinians.  Needless to say, the Israelis got the better end of that deal, and USAID money helped to build many excellent roads to bring settlers to their homes in illegal settlements in the West Bank, and out to their jobs in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Palestinians were left with the Wadi Al Nar road to take them between the lower West Bank and the upper West Bank, and an inferior set of roads to take them from Palestinian city to city and village to village.  So yes, the USAID money is now being spent on a road that is used by the Palestinians (the Wadi al Nar road), however, the Palestinians don't want this long, windy and dangerous detour - the Wadi al Nar road - to be part of their "permanent status".

Right of Return

"Right of Return" key in Manara Square, Ramallah

Walking around Ramallah today I spotted reminders of the demonstrations that took place on  May 15th of this year  to commemorate 63 years of the Nakbah.    This is the Palestinian remembrance of the 1948 war which ended with 3/4 of the Palestinian population having been expelled or escaping war, never to be allowed to return to their homes in what is now Israel.  One of the symbols of this loss is the key, since many of them carried the old key from their homes with them when they fled, intending to return when the fighting ended.

"The Right of Return is Never Outdated", Ramallah

ATMs: Shekels, Dollars, Euros, or Dinars?
Wouldn't it be interesting if ATMs in the United States gave you an option of currencies?  Well, that is what you get at ATM machines in Ramallah.  I just put my Bank of America debit card into an ATM here and withdrew $600 in nice crisp $100 bills.  Shoot, if I want to get just $5000 in $100 bills  in Concord, Massachusetts I have to notify my Bank of America branch three days ahead so that they can get a supply of $100 bills.  My only other option is to take the $5000 in $20 bills.

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Moving Around - Jerusalem, Ramallah: May 22-23 2011

After starting my trip with a relaxing walk through East Jerusalem last Saturday, I picked up the pace to accomplish my business goals, visit friends, and absorb and share information. On Sunday I headed into the Old City of Jerusalem in search of jewelry. I have always loved wandering through the Old City. I have always hated doing business there.




Russian-language signs at this Palestinian store are a testament to the increase
 in the  importance of Russian-Israelis and Russian tourists to the economy. 

 

It is tough to shop in the Old City. Prices are not marked and negotiation is a must. Shop owners use various techniques to get the price they want. In the tradition of middle east hospitality they invite you to sit down and have Arabic tea or mint coffee while you do business. When you make a counter offer they will often say that they can't let the item go at that price because they paid more for it, whether or not they did. And then finally, if and when you agree to the price, you will find that they do not want to give you a receipt (which you should demand if you are buying for a business). Over the years the Palestinian shopkeepers explained to me that this was because they did not want to pay taxes to Israel on the items they sold. This year a shopkeeper shared more detail with me.

Each month the Israeli government sends a representative to each Palestinian shop in the Old City to look over their receipt book.   The Israeli government sets an expected level of monthly sales for each store (just for example, let's assume $18,000 for a very small store).  If the books show that the shop made less than that, the Israeli government assumes they are hiding income and their shop may be closed.  If their income is more than that, they risk having their monthly minimum raised.   If , like me, you go to a shop to buy in quantity, that might upset the books for the shopkeeper.  The government would look at that receipt and assume that the shopkeeper should be able to maintain similar daily sales.  The shopkeeper might want to spread the sale over several days on the books, giving you multiple receipts dated differently  but that is not possible since the shopkeeper does not know when the Israeli government might show up at the shop to examine their books.  So, they refuse to give a receipt from the books.  If you pressure them a lot, you can get a very informal receipt on a piece of paper, and then hope that the receipt will do if the IRS ever audits your business.

Hence, although the Old City of Jerusalem has stores with interesting vintage Bedouin jewelry that I would like to buy for my customers, I rarely buy it.  I am not a good negotiator, I hate having receipts that might not cut muster, and the entire process takes entirely too long.  But, alas, I did spend a few hours on Sunday in a shop and did come out with a pair of vintage silver Bedouin dowry bracelets, a few beautiful stone necklaces, and two pairs of dangling earrings with original Ottoman coins.  I didn't get the deal I needed, but I am happy with the finds.

In the process, I heard about how it has become more and more difficult for the shopkeepers to buy vintage Bedouin jewelry.  Years ago, Bedouin women who wanted or needed to sell some of their jewelry could travel to the Old City and approach the shopkeeper with the items.  But of course more and more restrictions have put on movement.  Without a permit, Bedouins from the West Bank can't get to Jerusalem.  Bedouins from Gaza would never be able to get a permit to leave and sell jewelry.  If you are a shopkeeper, you have to go out to markets in search of Bedouin jewelry instead of waiting for it to come to you.  You'll never get a permit to get into Gaza to go to the markets there in search of Bedouin jewelry.  So, the closures, the permit system, has impacted the open market in Bedouin jewelry.

Muslim praying in the Christian Quarter

After several hours of wandering through the Muslim and Christian Quarters of the Old City, I headed to the Armenian Quarter to buy jewelry.  Oops!  Sunday.  Shops and restaurants all closed.  I did not think ahead enough.  So, I wanded into the Jewish Quarter to see what changes there may have been in the past year.  Not much.

The Jewish Quarter is beautiful and has been tastefully built with Jerusalem stone.  But it is modern and antiseptic in comparison to the other quarters of the city which transport you into an ancient and exotic world. 

A square in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem

I then saw dozens of Israeli soldiers heading to the Western Wall and followed them out of curiosity. I was aware that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) brings soldiers to the Western Wall for swearing-in after a year of basic training. I also knew that the military training included learning the Israeli "narrative", including that of the Six-Day War, and that this involved field trips to military monuments and museums as well as to the Western Wall. (FYI, I am equally as critical of the political indoctrination of American and other soldiers. But, I am particularly disturbed that the Western Wall, which is a religious site, has become a nationalistic site which is more associated with Israel's 1967 capture of East Jerusalem and the West Bank than with the fervent prayers of millions of observant Jews and others.)


Tourists on the Western Wall plaza were asking soldiers if they could have their pictures taken with them.  Israeli flags marked the right boundary of the prayer area. (This gave me a flashback to Christmas Eve 1996 at Manger Square.  Enormous posters of Arafat were hanging in the square, obscuring the religious significance of the occassion.)  Soldiers were gathered in huddles for training or for preparation for the swearing in ceremony.  I don't know which, since I did not have the patience to stand around long enough.



On the approach to the Western Wall.  Zoom in and note the text at the bottom by the jet fighters!



 

The right boundary of the Western Wall plaza

Small and Crowded Women's praying section of the Western Wall





Large and roomy men's section of the Western Wall





Let's fast forward to Monday.  It was time for me to head up to El Bireh, the sister city of Ramallah, to my usual home base in the West Bank - the City Inn Palace Hotel.  I caught bus 18 at the open bus station across from the Jerusalem Hotel in East Jerusalem, paid 6.5 shekels, let the driver put my suitcase in the trunk area, and took my seat.  I use a combination of shared taxis, public buses, and rides with friends and business contacts to travel around the West Bank.   It is inexpensive, and not too inconvenient.  Car rental poses certain challenges for the average westerner.  Finding one's way around is difficult. Many streets are not marked or not well  marked.  Many signs are only in Arabic.  One needs a real familiarity with the map and needs to be able to read Arabic well enough and quickly enough to figure out what the signs say before passing them by.  And then there is the problem of needing to know what to do at checkpoints, needing to know how to avoid unnecessary checkpoints, and needing to know how to respond if pulled over by either Israeli soldiers, Palestinian soldiers, or Palestinian police.  In general, you will not see tourists to the West Bank driving cars!

To get from Jerusalem to Ramallah, one passes through the Kalandia checkpoint, which resembles a border terminal.  Going from Jerusalem into Ramallah is not a problem, but going from Ramallah into Jerusalem is, since Israel will not let Palestinians travel to Jerusalem without a special permit.  The Kalandia checkpoint becomes a bottleneck in the morning for people headed towards Jerusalem.  On May 15th of this year, the IDF violently put down the attempt of hundreds of Palestinians to force their way through the Kalandia checkpoint in honor of Al Nakba Day - the day Palestinians remember their losses in the 1948 war.

Kalandia checkpoint: Israeli soldiers checking cars heading towards Jerusalem



Pillbox and the Wall at Kalandia with Palestinian grafitti art

Al Amari UN Refugee Camp, enroute to Ramallah Center


I had timed my trip well.  When I went through the Kalandia checkpoint at about 10 AM the traffic was relatively light.  Bus 18 then headed to the Ramallah bus station, next to the Friends' Boys' School.  The busload of passengers  (30 or more) started disembarking, all without fanfare.  However, when I, the only foreigner, disembarked a film crew surrounded me with tv cameras, a boom microphone, and reporters.  They were politely but aggressively trying to interview me, but I insisted that they wait until I got my suitcase out of the bus's trunk.  I knew that the bus would be moving on very quickly with my luggage if I did not grab it right out.

Then I turned my attention to the film crew.  It was a film crew from Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) working on a documentary.  A Palestinian artist was among them.  He asked me if he could stamp my passport with an artistic State of Palestine stamp that he had created.  I would have liked to have this stamp on my passport, even though it contained in it no authority.  However, I felt forced to reject the offer.  I told them that I was an American and that I was likely not only to face problems on re-entry to the US but that the Israelis could use the stamp as an excuse to deny me entry into Gaza. As I explained to them, I have obtained the very rare and difficult-to-obtain permit to get into Gaza between now and June 8th, I will be going there next week to help people, and I am unwilling to put that mission at risk by letting them put a "State of Palestine" stamp in my passport.  I did however ask them to stamp a piece of paper for me, which they did.   I wished them luck in their efforts, which should bring some positive coverage for the Palestinian request for statehood which will come up for vote at the UN in September.


Palestine Stamp



City Inn Palace Hotel; my home in El Bireh



I will fast forward over the rest of my day in the interest of getting some sleep tonight.   As usual, I spent some time getting my Palestinian Jawwal SIM card working.  My Israeli Cellcom SIM card does not get reception in some parts of the West Bank and Gaza, so I needed to switch cards.  Tha'er, the driver from the Palestinian Association for Cultural Exchange took me to the Jawwal office to get it working.  I wanted to keep the same number I have had for years, but Jawwal had made some changes to the cards, and I had to replace my SIM card for 10 shekels.  Not bad. 

Palestinian billionaire Munib Al-Masri  is the majority stake-holder in Jawwal.  The Jawwal office in Ramallah is large, spacious, spotless, and secure.  You take a ticket on entering (just like an American deli, bakery, or government bureau), and may have to wait an hour at busy times.  Tha'er took me there  and we looked at cases of cellphones for sale while we waited.  The prices were outrageously high - many times what you would pay in the US.  (There are sales taxes in Palestine on everything, including food.  They are extremely high and they are transparent.  They are added into the price instead of added on.  I don't have the data on what the taxes are item by item, but I have been told that the taxes on cars are 100%.  This means that Palestinians  have a higher cost of living than many industrialized nations although their salaries are a fraction of theirs.  Needless to say, they don't think they get enough for these taxes!)  FYI, call rates for Palestinian and Israeli pay-as-you-go SIM cards  are quite high and are much higher than they are on a UK Vodaphone pay-as-you-go SIM card.  This is one part of the world where Skype is by far your best bet.

As I was bored waiting, I decided to take a picture of the inside of the Jawwal office to share with you.  I snapped one picture and a security guard rushed over telling me "no pictures".  Huh????  What is the problem with taking a picture of a cell phone store.  Paranoia exists on both sides of this Green Line!

 

Jawwal Cell Phone Office



And, a day is not complete without food.  I joined Dr. Adel Yahya of the Palestinian Association for  Cultural Exchange and a visiting delegation of US professors with the Palestinian American Research Center for a fine dinner at a local restaurant.  We all had salads and a Palestinian favorite: Chicken Mousakhan.  Then I had a second dinner cooked by Adel's wife.  Another Palestinian favorite: a swiss chard dish whose name a can't remember.

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Orienting, East Jerusalem - May 21, 2011



Jan at the Pool of Absalom in Silwan


It has been over a year since I blogged, but another trip to Israel/Palestine is a great reason to start up again. Here I sit in my room at the Jerusalem Hotel, near the Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem after a great day of walking, absorbing the sun, and getting reacclimated to this beautiful, spiritual and tortured city.  Today was a day just for me, to wander, discover what there was to discover, and to relax.


I arrived here yesterday.  This time I flew through Ben Gurion.  Although I love to start my trip in Amman, Jordan, my schedule did not permit a stop in Amman this year.  This entry was easy for me.  A few quick questions at passport control, a stamp, and then I jumped a shared taxi to Jerusalem and my hotel - The Jerusalem Hotel.

The Jerusalem Hotel is an oasis in the city - a short walking distance from the Damascus Gate.  At the entry is outside courtyard dining, complete with traditional Arabic dishes, nargila, and nighttime entertainment (a traditional oud and tabla duo).  The building is an older, traditional building with high ceilings, stone inner walls, beautiful wooden doors, and displays of Palestinian embroidery on the walls.  Yet WiFi, DSL, and flat screen tvs with a selection of AlJazeera, France 24, BBC, CCTV, Sky, CNN, Russian Today, and NHK meet all the modern needs of a news addict like myself.

As usual, I started my stay by getting my phone up and running, which meant buying a top-up card for my Israeli SIM card, and relearning how to pick up voicemails and check the balance.  Then a stop at a local store for bottled water, a delicious dinner at my oasis, and off to sleep.

I had a fitful night of sleep, punctuated by reading, and finally arose at 10:30.  I had missed the free breakfast, so I showered, dressed, and hit the road.  I started on a long walk to reorient myself to Jerusalem.  My goal was to put on miles and take my time.  At the closest street stand I bought a bottle of water and Ka'ek - the traditional Palestinian circular bread coated with sesame seeds.  The vendor included za'atar wrapped in white paper for the traditional dipping. 

Dipping my Ka'ek in za-atar and munching, I went up through Sheikh Jarrah, one of the loveliest, old Palestinian sections of Jerusalem.  For a few years now it has been under siege by settlers intent on displacing the Palestinians from their homes.  A large contingent of Palestinians, internationals, and Israelis built a solidarity movement and have had some success in slowing down the movement of settlers into the area.

Being Shabbat, hundreds of ultra-orthodox Jews were heading to the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Haredi (Ultra Orthodox Jews) heading through Sheikh Jarrah to the Old City for Shabbat Services

I continued on up to French Hill, a settlement built when Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.  I lived there with my husband and daughter in 1996-1997 and it was there that I was rudely awakened to the systematic discrimination against and displacement of the Palestinians.  French Hill remains as or more beautiful than I remember it.  The yard of the school my daughter attended for 1st grade was beautifully landscaped, the terraced apartments built into the hill were attractive, my daughter's playground had been nicely updated, and the outside of our old apartment at 33 HaHayil St (HaHayil = "the soldier" in Hebrew; many of the streets on French Hill have military names) had been cared for and updated.




The entry walkway to the Frenkel School on French Hill

 







The Frenkel School, French Hill

 



Terraced apartments, French Hill




33 HaHayil Street, French Hill

Butterfly at work atop French Hill

I left French Hill feeling sad.  Sad for my lost daughter. Sad for my lost illusions.  Sad that as beautiful as it is I could not consider moving back there knowing what I know now. 

I continued onward, past Hebrew University, past the entrance to the Palestinian Village of Issawiya, and into the Mount of Olives section of East Jerusalem, where I stopped for freshly squeezed orange juice.  Note the incredible vistas along this route.  The Mount of Olives Jewish cemetery takes up a large portion of the ridge down to the Old City of Jerusalem.  Plots in the cemetery start at $8500 and some can cost $50,000 and up if near the grave of holy rabbis.  Why so much?  Orthodox Jews believe that on the Day of Judgment  all bodies must travel under ground to the Mount of Olives from where they will ascend.  If they are not close by, it could be a difficult and timely trip.

Entrance to Hebrew University, Mount Scopus

Entrance to the Palestinian village of Issawiya, East Jerusalem

View of Palestinian East Jerusalem from Mount Scopus

Hebrew University, Mount Scopus

Israel's "Judea and Samaria" Police headquarters  in area E-1
of the West Bank near Maaleh Adumim; another illegal territorial claim

Jewish Settlements in the West Bank as seen from Mount Scopus





The Lutheran church's Augusta Victoria Hospital

Fresh orange juice!

The Mount of Olives contains numerous Christian churches, caves of prophets, and other religious landmarks of meaning to all Abrahamic religions.  I stopped to explore the Church of the Pater Noster and the Church at Gethsemane.

The custodian at the Church of the Pater Noster, a Palestinian Christian with French citizenship, snuck me in for free, since I had arrived late in the day, and remained patient while I toured and asked questions. He had spent some time in the US, so we chatted about that. He had traveled to Washington DC to marry his cousin - a practice common among Palestinians - only to find that she had a boyfriend. Shortly after, she and her boyfriend made plans to marry. It was then that the boyfriend told her that he was a Buddhist. She was grief-stricken and told him that she could not marry him, that she had to marry a Christian. She broke off the relationship. The boyfriend invited her back to his place for a drink and to say a friendly goodbye. When she went there he shot her and then shot himself. A modern day Romeo and Juliet story which exemplifies the determination of some of the Palestinian Christian community to stay faithful to their heritage.

Chapel of the Ascension

A tour bus driver takes a prayer break

A settler home on the Mount of Olives



The Church of the Pater Noster, believed to be on the traditional site where Jesus taught his disciples the Lord's Prayer.

The Lord's Prayer appears in 62 different languages at the Church of the Pater Noster

Some of the estimated 150,000 graves on the Mount of Olives

Dome of the Rock as seen from the Mount of Olives

Garden of Gethsemane - Jesus and his disciples are said to have
prayed here the night before his crucifixion

Church of All Nations or the Basilica of the Agony, enshrines a sheet
of bedrock on which it is said Jesus prayed on the night of his arrest

Franciscans leading service at Basilica of the Agony

Pilgrims touching their head and lips to the sheet of bedrock


I then headed down through the Valley of Kidron,considered to be the Valley of Judgment.  Funny that I should accidentally  find myself here on the date (May 21, 2011) that some offshoot Christian rapture believers claimed would be the Judgment Day...  Along the valley were the Tomb of the Sons of Hezir and the Tomb of Zechariah.    I then  headed out of the valley into Silwan, a section of Jerusalem that is under siege by settlers who want to displace the Palestinian population so they can live close to the Old City.  It has been the site of resistance and bloody and fatal demonstrations as of late.  I was pursued by two very young Palestinian boys (better known as "shabab") demanding one shekel.  I said "no", remembering how many Palestinians have told me that they deplore this behavior and want it stopped.  I continued to say "no" as they demanded again. They finally retracted, and threw a few stones at my legs from their property as I continued my walk. 

At the next home I was greeted warmly by the residents sitting outside their home sipping coffee.  One of them lives in both Minneapolis and Jerusalem.  He studied in Minneapolis and works there, but must return to Jerusalem every three years and stay for a year in order to keep his Jerusalem residency.  This is a very familiar story.  The Palestinians of Jerusalem, although born in Jerusalem, can not return to Jerusalem if they leave  Jerusalem for more than three years. Their residency is retracted.  This forces them  to return every three years or lose the option to return to Jerusalem to live or visit relatives.  The same does not apply for Jewish residents.

He offered to take me into the Pool of Absalom (Pool of Siloam) although it was afterhours.  I took him up on his offer.  He brought me to the entrance and then grabbed a friend to drive to the exit of the Pool, paid the guard some money to open the gate to the pool for me.  The Pool of Absalom was perhaps constructed as a reservoir to receive the water from the Spring of Gihon. Christians sayJesus took a blind man, put mud on his eyes, and told him to wash it off in the Pool of Absalom.  The man's vision was restored.

We chatted about the history of the region, the adjacent Valley of Cheesemakers (which to this day still has cheesemakers), and then his friend, Shehadeh, dropped me off at the Philadelphia Restaurant for dinner, a short walk from the Jerusalem Hotel.  I gave them some money for their services and said goodnight.

Tomb of the Sons of Hezir and Tomb of Zechariah

Palestinian home in Silwan

Entrance to the Pool of Absalom

Settler home with Israeli flag in Silwan

Shehadeh at the Pool of Absalom

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Tunnels: Rafah, Gaza

Fourteen hundred and fifty tunnels, dug in the sands of Rafah, Gaza, travel under the Egyptian border and rise in Rafah, Egypt. These are the lifeline for the people of Gaza, who are living under an international blockade. Hard as it might be to believe, these tunnels bring everything from soap to cars into Gaza. They range from relatively rudimentary one-meter square tunnels, to what is described as "5-star tunnels", the two tunnels that Hamas owns and operates, that are used for transporting cars, rockets, weapons, and who knows what else.

Fields of tunnels in Rafah, Gaza.

According to one source I spoke with, 1000 cars on the streets of Gaza were transported through these tunnels. They are separated into four pieces on the Egyptian side, transported through the tunnels, and then welded and reconstructed on the Gaza side. My reliable source said he doesn't want one of these cars. They cost $30,000 and he would not trust them. (Not to mention the fact that, the car tunnel was bombed by Israel last week, and needs to be rebuilt.)

My friend's dream is to purchase a Mercedes from Saudi Arabia and have it delivered to Rafah, Egypt in December. Then, when the Free Gaza marchers amass on the Egyptian side of the border in late December to pressure for the end of the blockade of Gaza, the Egyptians will open the border and he can drive his new Mercedes into Gaza. Is this a pipedream or reasonable optimism?

But, to get back to my story: On October 4^th, I had a chance to visit the tunnels and speak to some of the workers. My driver stopped at one of the tunnels. As with all of the tunnels, a tent was erected to protect this tunnel and its workers from inclement weather and snooping eyes. My translator asked if we could go inside the tent to take a look at the tunnel and ask questions. The workers agreed to let us approach, but told us not to bring the camera into the tent. This tunnel was no five-star tunnel. The entrance and footprint were about a meter square, dug cleanly into the sand. (The ground in Gaza is sand, not clay. Many tunnel workers have been killed in cave-ins. The sand that is dug out of the tunnels is then sold to builders to use in construction, but some piles of sand remain around each tunnel). The tunnel workers would not allow us to photograph the tunnel, however, a great picture that shows exactly what this tunnel looked like can be found in Confessions of a Rafah Tunnel Worker.

The streets of Gaza are teeming with motorcycles brought through the tunnels. They have become the "thing to have" and you can see motorcycles with individuals or with families (husband, wife, and baby) on them, flying through the streets of Gaza, with total disregard of street laws. No helmets, many motorcyclists have no driving license, and in some cases their motorcycles have no license plates. My translator, Fadi, reported that about a month ago the Hamas government announced that they would start enforcing laws on these motorcyclists.

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