United States Agency for International Development

By Nour Odeh in Middle East on March 26th, 2010

Palestinian workers are hard at work, paving the main Ramallah-Birzeit road ... Hot asphalt pouring on the road, fumes spreading their intoxicating effect, in preparation for a smooth, world-class highway. It's all courtesy of US taxpayer dollars. Through the aid agency USAID, the Obama administration is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on projects in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

This year, USAID plans to spend $153m on infrastructure projects in the West Bank alone. That includes the construction of up 180 kilometres of roads. It's a considerable jump from the $65m the agency spent on similar projects in 2009.

falling-money.jpg

By Nour Odeh in Middle East on March 25th, 2010
photo from AFP

"One is dead! Go home! That's what the soldier told me…." Salwa Qadus told me, her voice cracking in fear as if the Israeli soldier was still standing at the corner where she was pointing.

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"The boys were shouting for an ambulance… the soldiers wouldn't let them pass", she recalled…pausing every so many words to gasp for air.

"I didn't know the dead boy was my nephew" she went on, almost succumbing to tears. She's talking about 16 year-old Mohamad Qadus, who was fatally shot in the chest on Saturday; and his cousin Usaid, who died in a Nablus hospital Sunday morning from gunshot head wound.

By Nour Odeh in Middle East on March 22nd, 2010
Photo by Nour Odeh

Iraq Burin children

Reporting on the death of children is never an easy task. It challenges your sense of professionalism and puts you face to face with the strongest of emotions; a mother’s inconsolable grief at the loss of her child.

On Sunday, I went through this unforgettable experience - four times.

It started out with news coverage of a funeral for 16-year-old Mohamad Qadus and his cousin Usaid - 18 years. They were shot dead by Israeli soldiers at the conclusion of a day of demonstrations in their small village of Iraq Burin.

The mood was so sombre; you could feel it walking around… Men silent and serious, women distraught and in tears.

Freshly dug graves

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