Kent is a painter and a christian.  I\'m not to sure why he\'s here.  His biggest seller is an oil of the Sea of Galilee - biggest seller in Tobermory,Ontario that is.  We were talking about how the medias coverage regarding the number of dead Palestinians has slipped from sight. He concluded that as long as the bodycount stayed around five a day that it would not make CNN/BBC headlines.  There is some truth in there. A \" low intensity conflict \" is the current newspeak terminology.

During the second week of this \"low intensity conflict\" fourteen Israeli Arabs were killed. They don\'t share equal rights.  Many were killed by private Israeli hand gun collections and not the soldiers. The most telling thing about these tragic occurences is that they don\'t even make the statistics for the number of dead Israeli citizens even though they were born in Israel and lived their whole lives there. Apartheid in motion.

The gaza strip always reminds me of the film \"Escape from New York\" where they seal of Manhatten Island and keep all the prisoners.  Over a million live there in virtual isolation. Unemployment is currently around 50% . I was initially refused entry as they were stopping tourists. \' For your own safety\' they insisted. Yeah right. After some discussion they capitulated. I sat with some school teacher friends.  They insist that all children attend school,  and will inform parents of any absentees. However when schools out they can do little.  One boy from a friends class was martyred at the clashes.  All of his class attended the funeral along with his whole street and thousands of other mourners.  This is how  it is. On the street where I stayed there were two other houses of mourning...

Naturally the talk is of politics.  Many people curse the day that the Oslo  Peace Accords were signed. They see a two tier Palestinian society.  The elite who get the crumbs from the Israelis table and those who\'s lives have changed very little over the past ten years.  They would prefer for nothing to be signed - not now and not in the future. At the moment closure has made them all one. Only food and medical supplies are allowed into the Gaza strip. Oh and of course
the elite of elites - the UN in their shiny white cars.  They can still sit at the beach club and watch the sun go down on the meditaranean sea ( and their own out dated institution ).  G & T\'s and chauffer driven cars. When I was returning to Ramallah one UN wag remarked \' Can I get you anything from the shops?\' to a borderguard. No one smiled. Dickhead.

So far 50 children under the age of 17 have been martyred.  The Israeli defence forces (IDF) rules of engagement states that stone throwing is a life threatening act and allows them to open fire.  9,000 Palestinians have been injured and about 1,200 will be crippled for life. I guess these statistics hadn\'t really sunk  in with the Israeli baywatch set because last Saturday was Tel-Aviv\'s Love parade. I didn\'t really have enough love that day to take my Mitsubishi to the beach and join them in celebration. 100,000 people did though. Sweet.  Instead I went to the City Inn on the edge of Ramallah, at the Al-Bireh neighbourhood.  There have 
been daily clashes here for six weeks now.  I was acompanied by my local bartender. He\'s quite a character.  He\'s already been shot three times.  The Israelis were using tear gas in abundance.  I saw people pass out from it.  It\'s disgusting stuff. All around this flashpoint were Israeli snipers. Waiting. Picking out those
who they think are getting to bolshy and slam - one more statistic. I saw the bartender pick up two spent gas grenades, and tie them with string to make some bolas, and then went dancing to the frontline.  I left him to it.

Before I go I found this quote in Haaretz a few days ago. It\'s in response to a photo that was doing the rounds. It kind of sums up what\'s happening out here.

\" I am prepared to guarantee that anyone who writes \'Born to kill\' on his helmet has some kind of sexual violence that finds no legitimate outlet, so he expounds it on small children by shooting them...We are talking about killing children, shooting them, and an entire country, with it\'s enlightened media and all it\'s pluralism, passes over it as if it were normal to kill children\"

Azmi Bishara (Arab MK) addressing the Knesset 13th November