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More West Bank Interviews and Images

What's a Moderate? by Nancy Updike
(15:09) What if a new Palestinian leader came on the scene who was neither part of the corrupt autocracy of the Palestinian Authority, nor part of fundamentalist, suicide-bombing Hamas? Nancy Updike follows around possible future Palestinian political candidate Mustafa Barghouti, a doctor who's well known for setting up clinics. Premiered on "Give It to Them," PRI This American Life.

Ramallah street with Isreali army Jeeps. This is in a business district in Ramallah. Curfew has just been lifted and stores, restaurants, cafes are opening up for a few hours to try and draw customers and make a little money. This man came out to help the kid fix his bike, as two Israeli army jeeps went by. Curfew was reimposed four hours later.

Ramallah street markets
When curfew is lifted, there is a mad rush to get outside to buy food. This market and the streets around it were packed with vendors and people buying food and clothes, and old men smoking hookas on the street. Briefly, the city felt almost normal.

Rula smoking in coffee shop
Rula, a Palestinian photojournalist who translated for me. She smoked and had a coffee in a restaurant while we waited for the guy I was interviewing to arrive. Even when curfew is lifted, it can take awhile for people to get from one part of Ramallah to another--often because it takes awhile to confirm that curfew is, in fact, lifted. Palestinians have been killed for being out in the street thinking that curfew had been lifted when it hadn't.

Ramallah poster storefront
A kid walking by a poster shop in Ramallah selling posters of Yasser Arafat (right side) and Che Guevara (left).

Sign in Arabic
This was a sign in a bathroom at a health clinic in Ramallah. I think it means "Don't waste water" but I never found out for sure.

Long line at Gaza checkpoint A long line at a checkpoint. There are checkpoints set up around every city in the West Bank and Gaza. To get from any place to any place else will definitely take forever and might not be possible, if the checkpoint closes, which can happen without notice.

Israeli soldier at checkpoint An Israeli soldier -- a young woman -- talking to the crowd waiting to get through the checkpoint. A lot of the soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza are 25 or younger. Imagine a 25-year-old with a machine gun having power over your day-to-day life.

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