Salt on wounds.

From New Album 4/28/09 11:08 PM

Israeli settlers in Ramallah, West Bank, shoot off fireworks in honor of Israel's Memorial Day.

I was sitting in my hotel room reading a book when I heard what sounded like that popcorn-like bursts of a light machine gun in the street outside.  Turns out it was Israeli settlers shooting off fireworks from the hilltop near my hotel, overlooking Ramallah and Al-Bireh, where their illegal settlement grows by the day.  

This week the Israelis celebrate Memorial Day and Independence Day, remembering their war dead and commemorating the 1948 victory over Arab armies in the War of Independence that enable the creation of the State of Israel.  Palestinians call that war "El-Nakba," or, The Disaster.