The West Bank, etc.

Plans change, reminding us that we are actually in the middle of a conflict zone. Things in Israel are very calm, and if one did not know that there was a wall between us and the occupied territory, it would be easy to think that the conflict here had ended. But Saturday (the 9th) is the anniversary of the International Court of Justice ruling that the occupation is illegal, and I got a list serve message from an activist group letting me know that there will be active protests against the occupation, and, I assume, confrontations with the Israeli military, from the 9th through the 16th. We got a bit more scrutiny than expected when we came in, and our friend who is teaching here in Jerusalem this week came in from Jordan with her daughter (who works for a U.S. Congressman) and was held for over three hours at a checkpoint. All of this means that we have decided to move up our attempt to visit the Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center, Wi'am, from the 10th to 5th, perhaps missing some of the confrontation.