mountains, a smallish invasion, home demolition, little sleep and a cold, cold night

yesterday i came into nablus. it was not easy. the direct route, through the huwarra checkpoint where there is also a large military base and the military headquarters for the northern west bank, was not open for me. approaching the checkpoint i had a bad feeling about my possibility of entering quietly, and i was correct to assume things wouldn't be as easy as they were on election day, the last time i encountered huwarra and its bells and whistles.

in a bid to attempt to convince the soldier that i was somehow 'like him', thinking he'd be more likely to let me in if i convinced him i was somehow on his team, i told him that i was hungover and tired from a big night of drinking when he asked 'how are you?'. it was partially the truth, and he almost let me through because he was laughing at me. in the end, though, his commander shot him a stern look and he turned, telling me, straightfaced, 'sorry, nablus is closed'.

i still haven't gotten over this phenomenon. 'closed'. a city is closed, like it's a department store or a library. well, nablus is no department store or library, and i had to get there, so i turned around with my heavy bag and my camera stuff and walked toward the line of waiting taxis. i got into the first one that would take me to the village just outside of the checkpoint, up the hill. there was a flying checkpoint on the road to the village, but the taxi driver, in his 1973 mercedes benz, flew round the corner and through an olive grove, cutting off the checkpoint and entering the village road about a kilometer further up the hill.

we drove the village's winding, narrow roads up the hill until we couldn't go any further. at the top i paid him and started hiking. an hour and a half, lots of backsweat, a bit of mountain rain, and muddy, muddy boots later i had reached the top of the third and last hill, made it past two settlements and an army post without getting shot or questioned, and descended to find a taxi to take my tired ass to balata. i have never been so happy to see the city of nablus as i was at that minute, finding the last crest of hilltop and the jawaal palace. (jawaal is the richest palestinian man; he owns the only palestinian cellphone company which is named after him. he's got an enormous mansion at the top of the north mountain looking down on the city. you can see it from every part of nablus...it's really bizzare.)

we had a nice meal in the flat, the usual suspects were there; the british kids, the guy from switzerland and his partner, a woman from germany. our palestinian friend muhammad decided he wanted to go shopping for the eid holiday (today is eid eve) to buy new clothes. we accompanied him, feeling quite bizzare going shopping for shoes in nablus. a pair of pants, one of shoes and a new sweater were purchased. the four of us were feeling quite materialistic and strange, and we decided to go and have some knaffe, the delicious dessert nablus is famous for throughout the arab world. every palestinian will tell you, 'the knaffe nablus is the best in the world'. walking to al-aqsa cafe, supposedly the best of the best, we ran into another friend who said, 'fi jaysh' (there's army). he pointed, we dropped our bags and started walking quickly toward what i actually assumed was nothing, a prank our friend was playing on us for the eid.

to make an incredibly long and boring story short, we arrived on the scene to find not one, not ten, but about 40 jeeps, a hummer, two trucks and a medical van, all israeli army, travelling throughout the area just above the old city. they apparently arrested about 20 people, occupied some homes, and demolished one on the other side of the city. we stayed with medical workers the whole time and helped some women get back into their homes in the occupied area of the city. otherwise we were completely useless because the army was not in the mood to deal with us and none of us knew the occupied area well enough to attempt it, anyway.

we are going to take some pictures of the demolished home today and talk to people who had family arrested. there is so much more to say...