An historic moment

As the jeeps' engines started to rev up, the atmosphere reflected the excitement after hours of waiting. An international student at Birzeit University caught this excellent photograph [right] of an Israeli soldier capturing a momento of the occasion with a holiday-type camera.

The last stones...

As the jeeps began moving, the barriers in their wake were removed and the crowd followed them up the street. Stones began to fly at the departing jeeps over my head. Most were thrown from so far away that they missed the jeeps and went into the crowd. In the photographs below, you can see Palestinian Authority officials shouting at the stone-throwers to stop, while simultaneously trying to protect themselves from the flying rocks. The rocks in my photo (on the left) were thrown from about 20 yards behind me, at the jeeps 20 yards in front of me. The sense of danger is better captured in the other photo (on the right) taken at the same moment from behind me (standing in the purple jacket). The rock on the right narrowly missed a group of journalists. It was clear that people were going to get wounded.

Click Here for Israeli departure from Ramallah Police Station, part II

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