January 24, 2002 — Mudeif Productions

The last four days have all kind of blended together. We have been visiting friends in the village, and getting to play with their kids (and really really big mushrooms), which we haven't done in a while - elsewhere, outside Zababdeh, the nonsense continues. The Israeli army cut off Tulkarem, then assassinated four in Nablus, leading Hamas to call for "all-out war" or something like that. Then Palestinan extremists shot and injured many people in West Jerusalem.

Every day, we return to school expecting not to see our students from Jenin and beyond because of Israeli reprisals carried out on the Jenin area. So far, though, the long and winding road has remained open. There are many strange things that happen in this place - this is just one of them.

One of our friends from the Arab-American University of Jenin called us from Jerusalem today to say she had arrived there safely from Zababdeh. At the Hamra checkpoint, with which we have become all too familiar, she related the story of the Israeli soldier's harrassment of the entire taxi.

It began when he saw the address on one passenger's ID as "Tulkarem."

"That's ours now," he remarked. He then opened the taxi driver's ID, noticing the picture of Jesus within (he's a Christian). "Some people say we killed Jesus," said the soldier. "I think that's a good thing."

Then, as they waited longer, he waved his gun around at the passengers. The word that came to mind is "provocation," but our friend noted that she was the only one in the van who was visibly bothered by this. Everyone else simply was used to it, it seems. Which is disturbing.