Fun for kids (and overgrown kids) in Tel Aviv, summer 2005.

Fun for kids in Jerusalem, summer 2005.

I took the second photograph around 8.30 AM, just outside the central bus station in Jerusalem. Groups of teenage girls had gathered to spend the day handing out orange ribbons* and little flyers printed in colour on glossy paper. Written on one of the flyers was the following: "Border police! Can you live with this on your conscience? Can you drag your fellow Jews out of their homes, and give them to the same people who murdered Tali Hatuel and her children?"

The flyer went on to advise soldiers who wished to refuse orders of their legal rights.

One of the girls confronted me and asked aggressively which newspaper I worked for. I asked her why it mattered, and she had no answer.

Later in the day I was in a taxi driven by a guy named Mustafa, who was flying a blue (pro-disengagement) ribbon from his antenna. When questioned about this political statement, he smiled cynically, opened the little storage box between the two front seats, and produced an orange ribbon.

"I change them, depending on the neighbourhood," he explained.

*Orange is the colour of the anti-disengagement movement.