military, and their plight is typical of the worst oppression suffered by Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

Moayed Mesleh, who lives in the town, believes the main reason the Israeli public let the authorities treat the Palestinians so heavy-handedly is ignorance of the true situation in the Occupied Territories, for which he blames apathy on the part of the Israeli press.

"There is no way to change the army, but the public's opinion can be changed," he said. "Israelis think that we're all terrorists. But the media know the truth; they know us as people. They come to our homes, and we are not strange to them. We need them to take this message to ordinary Israelis in order to influence them. The only reason Israelis vote in the worst governments is because of what they are fed on their televisions."

The villagers' scepticism at the Israeli government's latest peace-making overtures is echoed by Angela Godfrey-Goldstein of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

"Olmert is not fulfilling any of the promises

made during the Annapolis Conference," she told The First Post. "The Israeli settlements [in the West Bank] are still being expanded on an almost daily basis; the restriction on Palestinians' movement is as rigid as ever; and the core issues are being completely ignored, such as sovereignty over Jerusalem and the refugees' right of return. It's no wonder that from a Palestinian point of view, at present they feel no closer to peace."

The suspicion, of course, is that the Israeli tactics - from the tear-gas used on the Nilin protestors, to putting the frighteners on an elderly grandmother - are designed to drive away the Palestinians, leaving the field open for more Israeli settlers to take their place.

But this plays into the hands of the Palestinian extremists who are not prepared to sit back and watch their communities collapse. And so the cycle of violence turns again, whatever Ehud Olmert may say.