Military

DATE=10/23/00

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=PALESTINIAN WORKER PROFILE

NUMBER=5-47213

BYLINE=SONJA PACE

DATELINE=RAMALLAH

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Deadly confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians are now into their fourth week, with about 125 people killed, almost all of them Palestinians. The violence has stirred anger and deepened distrust between the two communities. It also has had a profound economic impact, as V-O-A's Sonja Pace discovered in talking with a Palestinian worker in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

TEXT:

/// MUSIC / CAR SOUNDS ///

Every day, Mohammed Imran travels the roads to and from Ramallah, taking as many passengers as his yellow mini-bus taxi will carry. But lately there has been little business.

/// BRING UP MUSIC AND TALKING - MOHAMMED ACT 1 - IN ARABIC - FADE UNDER ///

Mohammed counts up his daily fares for the past week and laments how little he has earned.

/// MOHAMMED ACT 2 - IN ARABIC - FADE UNDER ///

Some days, he says, it was only 40 shekels (10 dollars), and many days, when roads and shops were closed, he made nothing.

Mohammed says he normally earns 100 to 140 shekels a day - between 25 and 35 dollars. Of that amount, he has to pay 10 dollars to the owner of the vehicle, the rest is his to take home. It is what he uses to take care of his family of ten. It is hard enough to get by in normal times, he says, but since the violence began and his income has dropped to little or nothing, it has been a daily struggle just to put food on the table.

/// MOHAMMED ACT 3 - IN ARABIC - FADE UNDER ///

Mohammed says the unrest of the past weeks has also made it more difficult for him to get from his village to Ramallah, where he picks up most of his customers. Israeli security forces have blocked roads within the Palestinian-controlled areas, which has severely restricted movement. So, Mohammed says he has to take back roads. Instead of 30 kilometers, he sometimes ends up driving 60 kilometers to get to Ramallah.

Mohammed is in his 40s. He was here during the original Palestinian intifada, or uprising in the late 1980s and early 90s. He says this latest round of violence is different.

/// MOHAMMED ACT 4 - IN ARABIC - FADE UNDER ///

He says the Israelis seem to be reacting more aggressively and using more and deadlier firepower than during the earlier intifada. Israelis say that unlike during that earlier intifada, Palestinians are using guns in the current street clashes.

But, for Mohammed Imran, there is another difference. The latest violence is being dubbed by many the intifada for Al-Aqsa the uprising for al-Aqsa. Al-Aqsa is the mosque compound in the center of the Old City of Jerusalem and is Islam's third holiest site.

/// MOHAMMED ACT 4 - IN ARABIC - FADE UNDER ///

He says, during the earlier intifada, we were fighting out of nationalism. This time it touches upon our religious feeling and that makes it more heartfelt, more intense.

Does he think life can return to normal once the violence subsides?

/// MOHAMMED ACT 5 - IN ARABIC - FADE UNDER ///

It's hard to imagine, he says. So many people have been directly affected. They've lost a son, a relative, a friend. They can't just forget that, he says. (Signed)

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