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Ian on the left was partially responsible for inviting me to speak at Oxford University before I departed for Iraq as a Human Shield. Coincidentally he was in the same hostel in East Jerusalem and on the spur of the moment he changed his plans to go to Gaza and came with us. Over the course of the week we spent together I found him to be very intelligent and cool headed with a very good heart indeed. Thanks Ian for your companionship and I shall see you soon brother.

We were new to Palestine and quite frankly we were over charged by this particular taxi driver. But the thing is that these people have so little economic opportunity that many of them swindle a little to make up for it. This is totally understandable when you think about it. I mean this man likely has a family to provide for and every bit counts.

I always felt shitty even calling them on over charging because I know how badly they need it. And on the other side many of these people actually insisted on giving a free ride or food or whatever because they knew what we were in Palestine for. You simply could not pay some of them.