On Tuesday we spent the better part of the day in Ramallah and the surrounding area. This included a morning visit to the Palestinian Beir Zeit University.

As is usually the case we had to take a circuitous route to Beir Zeit and Ramallah because of the "Separation Wall" that runs like a giant grey snake winding it's way through Palestinian neighborhoods and at times blocking off what used to be the main road from on town to another. (click here for pictures of the wall from a previous dispatch)

It makes traveling difficult to say the least and one has to wonder why Palestinians are being separated from other Palestinians. Perhaps (I say "perhaps") you can find some justification for the barrier between Palestinian and Israeli neighborhoods, but like I said one has to wonder...

At the university we heard about the difficulties of educating young people under occupation. Particularly as it pertains to students not being able to travel from one area to another. There are even bigger problems and that's when students are arrested by Israeli authorities and can't attend classes.

In some cases these students (or anyone else for that matter) can be arrested and held under "administrative security " designations, without formal charges ever being filed and those detentions can be renewed every six months. We were told about one student who was held for a period of four years.

The school does what it can to support these students, but there's only so much anyone can do.

As I've said before, the more I learn about the situation here the more complicated it gets.

This year Beir Zeit University has banned political activity on campus, because it was causing too many problems among the students. These problems are not so much with the Israelis but among the various Palestinian political groups, the largest being "Fateh" and "Hamas".

Political posters at Beir Zeit University
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We heard that everyone on campus knows who is affiliated with what group and that some of the students are being funded by these groups in order to be able to attend the university. So there are more than a few internal political contradictions when it comes to Palestinians and in the West bank and beyond that add to the complicated weave of the fabric here.

As I said we spent a good part of the day in Ramallah.

Ramallah is the political, economic and cultural center for the West Bank and many believe it will be the eventual capitol of a future Palestinian state. Though many hold out hope that Jerusalem (or part of it) will be the site, most people agree that is unlikely to happen.

We visited the tomb of Yassir Arfat the long time President of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and head of the The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Here is a picture of the tomb and the mausoleum complex.
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Ramallah is a bustling city of perhaps 200,000 people with more coming there all the time. It is what's known as a "Zone A Area" which means it's fully under the control of the "PA".

This is what downtown Ramallah looks like on a Tuesday afternoon.
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Of course when you visit the big city you need to stop and hang out at the coffee shop. You may recognize this place...

That's right "Stars and Bucks"
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But the most emotional part of the day came as we returned to East Jerusalem from Ramallah and had to walk through the "Qalandia Checkpoint"

You can perhaps get a better idea of what the checkpoint feels like by picturing a combination of a prison and a bus station. One where you walk through sports stadium turnstiles and barbed wire fences. Your bags are X-Rayed and you must show your "papers" to a bored or angry or sarcastic soldier.

The checkpoint can be arbitrarily closed at any moment and you may be forced to wait for hours to get through. You could also be held for further questioning or perhaps even arrested and imprisoned.

The checkpoints can be a flashpoint for sudden danger and even death. And this doesn't only apply to Palestinians. On Monday at "Qalandia" an Israeli soldier was stabbed to death.

Click here for sounds of the checkpoint and my interview with a member of an organization that monitors the checkpoints for rules and rights violations as we were waiting to pass through Qalandia.

For KVMR-FM, Nevada City CA
In Palestine & Israel,
I'm Mike Thornton