3 million Palestinians can't be wrong

Almost everyone, well every man, smokes in Palestine. One fellow I met recently refused to be interviewed unless I shared in a smoke up with him. Needless to say I lit up, but I don't think I'll be taking up the habit just yet. Nevertheless, I can understand why they do. Life here is so stressful and uncertain. Palestinians may not die in the same numbers as Congoloese or Darfuris. But this is a small country and the Israelis really do play games with them. You never quite know if you are entirely safe from death. Particularly in the rural areas. For example, many people, including old people and children, are liable to be shot or have stones thrown at them while they are walking down the road or in the hills. I interviewed a man who witnessed, along with four others, a fellow goat herder being run over by a speeding Israeli bus last month. I'm going to spend my next visit to Israel, in a few weeks time, investigating this claim. Although I have no reason to doubt this man's testimony and I've seen photos of the incident. I also saw the road where it happened from around half a kilometre away. I was told not to go any further as I would risk being shot at. The road basically divides a Palestinian village from a neighbouring settlement. I don't see why this story would not be true either. My guess is the bus driver was trying to get the herder off the road by intimidating him and speeding up the bus, which is what eyewitnesses say happened. But the goatherder, who was crossing with a lot of goats, simply could not get out of the way in time. I reckon, when the bus driver hit the man, he panicked out of fear the scary Palestinians would have killed him if he stopped. And perhaps they would have. So he decided to keep driving on to the nearest settlement.

As far as I know no one has been charged over the murder.