When ever we travel I marvel at the traffic. It seems in the West Bank there are no Rules of the Road . The first thing I had to do was remember you don’t stop to look both ways before you cross the street. It makes no difference because the cars will either stop or go around you even if it means driving on the sidewalk. In fact in most places the people walk down the middle of the street ignoring the cars. They wouldn’t dare do that in this country.

The cars don’t follow any rules either. If you are going one direction and someone is in your way just get in the lane going the opposite direction. If at all possible drive on the sidewalk to get around. If both cars are facing each other and there is no where to go they sit there blowing horns at each other until one decides to move. Move where? I don’t know but they manage to move somewhere.

Now of course you have to be careful walking on the sidewalk because you never know when a driver will decide he needs to get around a car or a group of cars, honk his horn and drive on the sidewalk.

Bob, being a former police officer, asked our friend, Tayseer, why the police didn’t enforce the rules. Tayseer told us there are no rules. I believe that. Several years ago when we were in Jericho cars were parked three deep on each side of the street. The police came and told people to move their cars and the people just looked at the police and did what they wanted. Some moved their cars but most didn’t. The next night the police were out making sure the people only parked two deep. Of course the street was built to park only one car on each side.

With all of this, what looks like confusion to me, there doesn’t seem to be too many accidents. Maybe it is because the traffic isn’t going very fast. I don’t know but I do not drive in the West Bank at all.

Thankful for our rules,
Jan