GAZA CITY 1996

In 1996 the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza in Israel held their first free elections. I was there as an official U.S. Embassy observer as to the fairness and legitimacy of the voting process. In the photograph here is me and my Palestinian Liberation Organization (P.L.O.)bodyguards. By the way I am the cute one with the shades on. They were Arafat’s men but we actually got along well. The voting process was slow and the lines long. I only saw one fight but did hear a lot of yelling at the officials by the Arab women in line to vote. The process was much longer than they had expected and they were in a hurry to get home to relieve whoever was watching the kids and to start the evening meal. All in all things went well and no one shot at me - that was a good thing.