Their efforts were tremendous, believe me. Political activists over 40 years of age received blows with batons and stones as they tried to stop the riot. Everyone, from all the different political factions, intervened to bring the events to an end. The press release holds the chief of police responsible because he issued orders to the police to storm the camp. The traffic lights that were finally installed near our entrance a day before the Pope's visit were smashed during the riot and the main road looks like a battlefield.
Stones cover the pavement and sidewalks.
This incident brings home, to each and everyone of us here, the importance of building a civil society in Palestine. Our policemen aren't Israelis, they aren't the occupation. Rather, they are our brothers, our sons, our husbands. They are, in short, our people. And it has to be different with them.