User Submitted Blog Post: Da Sound of Da Police

The political situation around Ramallah has become increasingly tense, with many Palestinians feeling increasingly disillusioned with the Palestinian Authority. In turn ,the PA has responded by escalating public visibility of its security forces and orchestrating intense crackdowns on dissent.

Over the past few weeks there has been a drastic increase in both PA security force and Israeli military raids and arrests around Palestine's so-called capital in waiting. Yet on Thursday, February 22nd, the authoritarian unpredictability of the PA took a further violent turn.

Just after 1:00AM, I was heading home from a friend's place in a less than pristine state of sobriety when I encountered four seemingly agitated PA police guards with AK 47s in front of the Canadian representative building. Ramallah's after-dark atmosphere had an increasing tension over the few days prior, with a heavy PA security presence - both Special Forces soldiers and riot police - massing downtown, despite empty streets due to bad weather.

As I approached the Canadian representative building, I heard the guards yelling at me in Arabic from 100 meters away. Stopping, taking off my headset, and raising my hands, the guards continued to yell and wave their guns. Grabbing his Kalashnikov and pulling back the safety while charging at me, an agitated cop motioned to the ground with his weapon, clutching the trigger. Naturally, I dropped to the floor.

It was at that point that I said, in English, "It's OK, I'm Canadian." The guard came to an immediate halt almost parallel to the Canadian flag hanging form the building, while the rest of the cops had a look of shock on their face. Their attitudes instantly changed. Offering me water, they began telling me how welcome I was in Palestine.

Shaken up by being welcomed and offered water by a guy who less than a minute before had been pointing a locked and loaded assault rifle at me, I decided to continue on my way. As I walked towards the main intersection, noticing my adrenaline rush, I began reflecting on how my international status had just saved my skin, forcing the police to present a completely changed image of reality.

Arriving at the intersection of Rukab - Ramallah's main thoroughfare - sirens blaring,a police car screamed by me, turning the corner sharply towards nearby Amari refugee camp. Right behind the vehicle followed an unmarked open white truck filled with 10-12 men in ski masks, black shirts, khakis and Kalashnikovs.

Earlier on Thursday, both the Marxist Popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine's Ahmed Saadat and the Hamas speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council called for national unity from inside the Israeli military courts they appeared in. They denounced the PA's continued negotiations with Israel despite the intensification of settlement expansion and Israeli military assault, demanding that the talks cease.

Seeing that something serious was clearly up, I decided to take the long route home, bypassing Amari. I put my headphones back on, and with a sense of irony and musical context, hit play to KRS-One's "Sound of da police." However, seemingly tempting fate in these situations isn't the best idea.

Less than a minute after running into the cops and gunmen, I heard an explosion of machine gun fire. Halfway down Rukab, with the song's chorus "whoop,whoop dat's da sound of da police, whoop, whoop dat's da sound of da beast" blaring, I hit the deck, ducking into a side street. Scanning the street only to see two shwarma shop owners on the ground, looking about frantically, I decided that the educated decision would be returning to my friend's place.

Waiting a few minutes, I watched the two shop owners going up and down the street trying to see what was up. Just as I was about to continue walking, a second round of Kalashnikov fire opened up and the situation repeated itself. Not knowing where the shots came from, the shwarma duo and myself looked for decks that needed hitting, taking full advantage of the sidewalk in front of us.

Minutes later, it was time to leave the area, and I began walking back to my friends place. A lone guy in Al Manara - Ramallah's city center - offered to escort me, claiming to be heading in the same direction. However, it wasn't until halfway towards the apartment that I realized his hat was actually a rolled up ski mask. At which point I made point of resisting his continued offer of walking me, eventually going my own way.

Arriving back at my buddies place, we tried to figure out was going on, speculating that this could be the beginning of an internal Fatah civil war or a PA internal crackdown. Later that night I saw an Israeli military vehicle and its dull orange siren flashing from the window, as it crept down the road two streets over.

The following morning the city was filled with rumors and speculation. The most credible story on the street was that the raid was to arrest a formally Fatah-affiliated Amari camp leader knows as ‘Ayman.' This was, according to one person who seemed in the know, connected to a stolen Israeli Jaguar. There was also much talk about PA -Israeli collaboration in the operation.

The PA leadership has been considerably alienated from the Fatah grassroots, unable to recover their image of resisting the occupation and defending Palestinian rights. At the same time, there is strong split between the PA and the Fatah aligned Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade - Fatah's armed wing from the Second Intifada - with armed cells openly denouncing Abbas as a traitor.

One police officer who said ‘Ayman' was arrested in relation to drugs also warned to stay out of the main streets late at night as things may continue. Indeed, for the next few evenings, machine gun fire continued. However, with the media not asking questions and seemingly most upper class Palestinians and internationals shutting their windows, ignoring the gunfire and increased security presence, one can only guess at what's actually going on.