Laughing with the children

Left: The day after redeployment saw the first parade in a week of celebration. A smiling Palestinian policeman drives along Radio Boulevard in a jeep loaded with children. Posters of Arafat are everywhere and shops compete to see who can hang the most flags in their windows.

Crowds

Right: The convoy of over 50 police vehicles drove around the centre of Ramallah. Many of the police, although not native to Ramallah, have cousins and other relatives here, making the occasion part welcome, part family reunion.

Dangerous games

Left: Many shots from AK-47 assault rifles were fired in the air when the convoy neared the police station, disturbing when one considers that several people in the autonomous areas have been killed and many more injured by the improper discharge of firearms since the PNA moved in. What goes up must come down, and high school physics tells us that it will come down at much the same velocity with which it went up.

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