Aug 1 Nablus & Hebron

toured Balata refugee camp near Nablus a Palestinian town in the West Bank about 1.5 hours north of Jerusalem. in Belata 25,000 pepople are living in a warren of apartment buildings; basically a slum. The ghetto is home for three generations of Palestinians who fled the coastal plains during the 1948 War. In April 2002 Israeli planes, tanks, and bulldozers targeted Nablus and Balata killing dozens of civilians. 67% (7.1 million people) of all Palestinians are refugees or IDPs. Toured the old city of Hebron and visited the Tomb of the Patriarchs where the world's three great monothestic religions share a holy site where Abraham, Issac, and Jacob and their wives are believed to be buried. We met with militant Jewish settler with pistol on his belt. He explained the Biblical justification for the Jews settling and confiscating land in Hebron. He described the conflict as essentially religious "with Moslems hating Christians more than Jews". Israel's regime of occupat