We decided that we were going to split up into groups of three and head out to the different polling stations located at post offices in East Jerusalem.

The first station we got to was a few blocks away from our hostel, a large post office called Al-Saladin. Palestinians of all shapes and stripes were beginning to arrive at 7:00am, and there were just as many (if not more) internationals, journalists, and foreign observers. This was going to be quite the show. [...]

See also:

• Due to Israeli Restrictions First Palestinian Votes at 12:30 at Jerusalem Polling Center
• Palestinian Elections - The view from above

We decided that we were going to split up into groups of three and head out to the different polling stations located at post offices in East Jerusalem.

The first station we got to was a few blocks away from our hostel, a large post office called Al-Saladin. Palestinians of all shapes and stripes were beginning to arrive at 7:00am, and there were just as many (if not more) internationals, journalists, and foreign observers. This was going to be quite the show.

The first crazy incident of the day happened at about 7:15am. A man with a bright red kafiyeh showed up at started to aggressively hand out simple flyers in Arabic. The flyers were a religious message encouraging people not to vote. Many of the middle-aged men in line were clearly offended and started to shove the man. A fight almost broke out, but the PA security came out to clear it up and remove the man handing out the flyers. Later on, we found the ripped up flyers scattered about the sidewalk.

As the morning unfolded, things seemed to be going smoothly to an unscrutinizing eye. Palestinians were lining up, going in, and coming out. We had heard rumors of a large settler protest to take place against the elections in Jerusalem, but no sign was to be seen. We felt kind of strange standing there with our “International Human Rights Observer

	Subject:  validation Author:  simms Date:  Sun, 2005-01-09 17:24
	added images from gallery, formatting [ ]

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