David Rolstone's Letters from Palestine

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Saturday, 13 December 2003 - Closed Off

Hi all,

Not sure how long I'm going to be able to type for; there was a long burst of gunfire from outside just now but It does not seem to be the army!

Yesterday was very eventful, it started quite early in the morning with a helicopter flying in the vicinity. This turned out to be the IDF evacuating wounded settlers. Ten Hasidic Jews had defied military orders and circumvented a military roadblock yesterday to enter Joseph's Tomb between Balata and Nablus. A Palestinian gunman opened fire at them as they left the site wounding seven, two are said to be in a critical condition. Every one in the camp was expecting reprisals and when the army turned up and started throwing sound bombs last night just after dark it looked as if it had started, but after making there presence known rather noisily they left.

This morning I had intended to go to Ramallah but Nablus is closed off today and every one was turned back at the check points. The IDF opened fire at a Palestinian taxi at one of the roadblocks killing a woman passenger. Friends at the UPMRC ambulance said that she was hit by two bullets and died immediately. She was 20 and had been traveling with another seven passengers from the village of Asirah ash Shamaliyah on their way to Nablus. No warnings were given before the shooting.

Yesterday I also arranged to try and teach spoken English at an orphanage and a community center, never having done anything like this before I'm quite nervous! Any tips?

One other unfortunate occurrence was that the ISM computer was stolen yesterday from the office. This will cause great problems as there is no money to buy another, plus all the hassle of how it happened.

All for now, peace and bright moments, Dave

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