Bilin demo

As I'm writing this there are clashes between various Palestinian groups, which has lead to a number of deaths and injuries. It is quite strange to think that literally a few streets away, where I went for dinner tonight there has been a gun battle.
Today also went from Ramallah to Bilin today for the demonstration that they have every Friday. As usual the march went up to the gate and a few Palestinians and internationals crossed the barbed wire and made a peaceful protest on the other side of the barbed wire by the fence, though others who tried to join them were pushed quite hard by Israeli soldiers as were those by the fence. Eventually we left the soldiers and walked back to the village where there was a 'running battle' for want of a better way of putting it between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian youths. We stayed away from it but got a very good view and again it was incredibly surreal to see people running, shouting, throwing things on the side. Some kind of futuristic wide screen movie. Then got hit by the tear gas, which is pretty nasty. Not too badly but it does really choke the back of your throat. Left quickly after that, the Palestinians are very keen to make sure that as few people get hurt as possible and those who organise the demonstration want to keep it peaceful as possible. As we were leaving one of the Palestinians told us there was now live fire. Am going to leave Ramallah but whilst I'm here I'm obviously not going to go into town. It seems a shame that despite a cease-fire killings go on. You would have thought that the Palestinians had seen enough bloodshed, without adding to it themselves - for instance the killing of three kids the other week. As I think I've said before I'm pro-peace and I think the violence happening at the moment in the West Bank and Gaza and attempts to shoot elected members is despicable, regardless of whether the bullets and bombs come from Israeli or Palestinians.