Article

2010-04-12 Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF bid to expel West Bank Palestinians is a step too far

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Posted by Steve White 2010-04-12 00:00|| || Front Page|| [2 views ] Top

#1 Implementing this new military order is not only likely to spark a new conflagration in the territories
What on earth would we do without self-righteous pundits dumping their delusional perceptions on us?
Meanwhile in the real world people are just getting on with their lives. When we hear the West-Bankians screaming, then perhaps we may know we have a problem. In the meantime Amira Hass should just get a life.
It is difficult to turn on a TV or radio or pick up a newspaper these days, without finding some pundit or other deploring the dismal prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace or the dreadful living conditions of the Palestinians. Even supposedly neutral news reporters regularly repeat this sad tale. Very little is changing for the Palestinian people on the ground, I heard BBC World Service Cairo correspondent Christian Fraser tell listeners three times in a 45 minute period the other evening.

In fact nothing could be further from the truth. I had spent that day in the West Banks largest city, Nablus. The city is bursting with energy, life and signs of prosperity, in a way I have not previously seen in many years of covering the region.

As I sat in the plush office of Ahmad Aweidah, the suave British-educated banker who heads the Palestinian Securities Exchange, he told me that the Nablus stock market was the second best-performing in the world so far in 2009, after Shanghai. (Aweidahs office looks directly across from the palatial residence of Palestinian billionaire Munib al-Masri, the wealthiest man in the West Bank.)

Later I met Bashir al-Shakah, director of Nabluss gleaming new cinema, where four of the latest Hollywood hits were playing that day. Most movies were sold out, he noted, proudly adding that the venue had already hosted a film festival since it opened in June.

MORE MERCEDES THAN IN TEL AVIV

Posted by tipper 2010-04-12 08:36|| 2010-04-12 08:36|| Front Page Top

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