October 31, 2003

Happy Halloween! Since that holiday is not celebrated here, we almost forgot about it. The Brits left early this morning. A very short visit, but we hope the group enjoyed their time here.

Half of them left at 6 AM with a Samaritan driver to go to Nablus. At the Tayasir checkpoint, they were told that, under no circumstances, would they be allowed to pass. So they went to the Hamra checkpoint, where they passed with minimal hassle.

The Wall - in some places a fence - is being built on Palestinian land.

The other half left around 8:30 heading to Jayyous to see the impact the Wall has had on that community, cut off from their land, from their former day labor jobs in Israel, and from the West Bank.

We have to hand it to this group - without a guide, and with no one speaking Arabic in their group, they managed to manage getting around. We joked about beginning with Plan A and ending beyond Plan Z within a matter of hours. It's not so funny these days.