Having a bit of free time I decided to draw a picture of the suuq (market) today. Of course this created a lot of attention, actually to the point that it became very difficult to draw.

A local young man invited me into his very basic tearoom for coffee, which also provided a welcoming break from all the attention.

He then shut up shop and invited me to join him for a walk where he introduced me to practically every man in Old Bethlehem, saying they were all good men.

He soon asked me if I wanted to 'play'. I asked him what he meant and he replied by flexing his muscles. When he lead me down an ally to the darkened interior of a shabby building and asked me if I liked massage.

I told him that I needed to return to Holy Land Trust, not that I am a stickler for new experiences, he was a warm and friendly man, but it just reminded me of a rather traumatic experience I had with a hair dresser in this town three years before.

In the afternoon I decided to make a drawing of the new segregation wall or 'Security wall' as the Israeli military like to call it.

I found a spot by the Gilo (settlement between Bethlehem and Jerusalem) checkpoint where a Palestinian man also wanted to make a drawing of the new construction that will further imprison his people.

One of the Palestinian workers, whom the Israeli government had kindly given the job of the wall's construction, came over and took my drawing to show the other builders whom I included in my drawing.

As I tried to get the picture back, they shouted 'Dollar, dollar!' a lot and made signs that they were going to rip it up. I must learn more Arabic!

I said 'Min fadlak' (please) and they finally gave it back. The 'wall' is just one more humiliating obstruction to the Palestinian peoples freedom.

One quarter of it has already been built and on Palestinian land. Freedom to move is one of the many ways the Israeli security crushes the moral of the Palestinians.

Many residents of Bethlehem cannot move further than a few kilometres, many have not been to Jerusalem in for years and it is only five kilometres and an Israeli checkpoint away.

One man told Richard (a volunteer from Ohio, and my neighbour) he loved America. 'When I was in America with my family, I hired a car and we drove for miles and miles and miles…'

Paul Gent