Photos from Palestine – Ray will be back in the US March 5th

Miko and Ray discuss prospects for peace.

Back at the checkpoint, we are approached again to pose with this sign (as we were yesterday).

The reeds on the right are part of a filtration and aeration system for the pond.

In the greenhouse, they are trying different methods of hydroponics.

This is the “greenwall,” again using recycled plastic bottles to create a vertical garden.

And a shot of our group plus the staff–Mari from Norway on the left, Mazin in the middle, Yusuf, our driver next to him, and Annabel and Jesse on the right end.

Yusuf insists that I get into the shot too.

We stop for a photo op under the key.

He points out how this list of those massacred contains many clusters of people from the same family–you can see the same last name over and over.

Miko Peled and Ray McGovern

We then proceed to march up the street toward the wall, where soldiers are stationed on the other side.

Chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” we march up the hill with our banner.

We get near the gate.

A close-up of the soldier

Tarak notices the soldiers looking

They decide to turn the banner around

Munther knocks on the gate, telling them we are unarmed and we would like them to see our banner.

It looks like it’s only a tear-gas launcher, but it’s not reassuring to have it pointed directly at me from about five feet away.

They can seriously injure or kill people if fired directly at them–soldiers are supposed to shoot them into the air.

He goes away.

He returns and gestures us to leave.

We go out on a tour of the area to see how some villages have been cut off by the wall

We pull out our banner and set up in front of the roadblock.

When Will notes that the soldiers seem to be darker skinned and asks if they are more inclined to be symopathetic to Palestinians, Miko explains the skin-color hierarchy of Israel and says that in fact they are less inclined, since they are striving to emulate the white-skinned European Jews who are top of the heap.