Well, thousands of Palestinians did not stream over the borders from Jordan, Lebanon, Gaza and Egypt.  They did not walk through the Bethlehem checkpoint into Jerusalem.  They did not do what the nonviolent activists, Palestinian and otherwise, dreamed they would do.  So that's something for the future.  I had a bad migraine last night, and was still trying to get over one today, when we got word that a peaceful demonstration was on it's way to Bab il Baladiye--the entrance to the Old City, our neighborhood.  Then my teammates who were accompanying the peaceful demonstration, called to say it had dissipated, and the traditional rocks versus tear gas, sound grenades and rubber bullets would once more cycle through their dreary routine.

 When I got to Bab il Balidiye, the Palestinian police were trying to clear the area of young men, and I eventually figured out the sound grenades I was hearing up the hill into H-1 were also from the Palestinian police. Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers, police and secret police were surveying the situation.

I was actually surprised that there was relatively little stone throwing and whooping it up before the Israeli soldiers stormed out of the Beit Romano checkpoint.

That's our friend Hisham Sharabati in the foreground.

After the obligatory teargas and sound bombs fired by the soldiers, I noticed a squad entering the market, so I decided I should fall back so I could stand with the shopkeepers and other neighbors.

They kept pushing us back with what looked like makeshift soccer goal posts wrapped in razorwire.

But they did allow people and merchants in and out of the market after a frisking and package search.  One soldier even thanked a young man after he frisked him, which was a little odd, but it probably means there were orders not to abuse civilians.

As I write, it's 8:20 pm.  Paulette, Paul and Esther Mae are out on patrol.  We got a call from our friend Hisham (whose back is featured in an above photo) saying that the Palestinian police had roughed him up and confiscated the card from his camera.  We still hear sound bombs periodically in the distance.

You know, didn't really feel like a Sunday.