On the day of Israeli redeployment from the Ramallah/Al-Bireh area, 27 December 1995, the area around the Israeli police station was dangerously sealed off with rolls of barbed wire serving as crowd control barriers. Several thousand Palestinian residents turned up to watch the departing Israeli soldiers. Most of the troops seemed to have redeployed already, with four or five jeep loads of soldiers remaining in the cleared area to perform the symbolic functions of taking down the Israeli flag and handing over the keys to the arriving Palestinians. The mood was festive, with many hawkers selling Palestinians flags and snacks.

The soldiers seemed to be in a wistful mood, deviod of much of their usual agressiveness towards the Palestinians. Some talked with people, smiled at the antics of the many journalists seeking photo opportunities, and some expressed their relief to be leaving.

Meanwhile, Fatah officials and Palestinian Preventative Security officers controlled access to the fenced off space in front of the Police Station. Sometimes irate, it became clear (the barbed wire barriers underlining the fact) that they were unprepared both for this and the celebrations that necessitated a wise crowd control policy in the coming week.

The "crowd control" techniques of the Israeli military have not been a good model. In the years prior to redeployment, demonstrations were regularly put down with teargas, "rubber" bullets, "plastic" bullets and live ammunition. On the morning after the massacre of Palestinians outside the Gaza central mosque in November 1994, I witnessed Israeli soldiers beating up 15-year-old schoolgirls who were demonstrating against the Palestinian Authority! It was memories of scenes like this, regularly witnessed in Ramallah, that caught up even members of Palestinian opposition groups in the euphoria of the redeployment moment. All things considered, thought most people, The PNA could not be as bad as the Israelis.

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