Sort of like the Jews taking the part of Palestine with a good economy?
Here's an article from the Jpost, which says the fence has brought stability back to Jenin. Not much of an economy though. It does sound as if the intifada is winding down, even though Israel security says 18 attempted suicide bombings were thwarted in the last month.
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Nightlife, in Jenin?
By MATTHEW GUTMAN
Stoop-shouldered and bespectacled, Hader Abu Sheikh, a 33-year-old official for the Palestinian Legislative Council in Jenin, is hardly a party animal. But that did not stop him from noticing that "there is 70 percent more nightlife in Jenin than a year ago."
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"We are talking about the resumption of traditional Palestinian nightlife," explains Abu Sheikh. "Weddings, men sitting in cafes late at night, women visiting each other... The point is, people are no longer confined to their houses at night, because Israel has left the city."
Nightlife, in Jenin? Rattled for three years by Israeli raids against local terrorists, Jenin is recovering – partly due to the controversial security fence that Israel credits with stopping Palestinian terrorism in its tracks.
IDF tanks had become nearly a permanent fixture in the city since bitter fighting during Operation Defensive Shield in April 2002. But according to the IDF, the security fence relieves the army of the necessity to regularly patrol the city.
For few is the change as tangible as for Ziad Mifleh, director-general of the Jenin Chamber of Commerce – the man responsible, among other tasks, for distributing Israeli entry permits to locals.
Whereas half a year ago the Civil Administration, the Israeli body that oversees life in the territories, doled out 100 permits to local merchants, Mifleh explained, it issued 1,000 this month. He signed 174 himself on Thursday, he noted proudly.
In the past three months, "We have seen the beginning of a breakthrough," he said, absently nudging a stubbed cigarette. "There are positive business indicators, as people are starting to think of capital and investment and commerce again."
Over the past six months, as the number of "martyrdom operations" decreased, the number of permits increased, noted Mifleh.
Still, Mifleh's office had requested 1,600 permits, and Jenin, once a thriving city of commerce, could certainly handle more. After all, the Chamber of Commerce boasts 3,500 members, he said. Dozens of men waited outside his room, some periodically barging in. It seemed the busiest place in town.
Jenin's markets are packed. Merchants complain that locals spend only on necessities and cheap trinkets, that the increased quiet and stability have yielded little or no economic dividend. The front displays at the jewelry shops on Abu Bakr Street brim with gold, yet the shelves inside the stores are entirely bare.
"People only come to sell gold," commented a gold dealer who would only identify himself as Abu Muhammad, 40. "This intifada has killed us all."
Before the intifada, remittances from legal and illegal laborers in Israel (and a good deal of auto theft) fueled the local economy. But crossing into Israel illegally is now a thing of the past, a task too difficult and too dangerous.
Back outside the Chamber of Commerce, marijuana and cigarette smoke mingled as several dozen men waited, some in vain, for permits. They hoped to gain permission to purchase or sell cheaply made clothes in Israel, or fruit, or anything that would put food on the table. In perfect Hebrew, the men there explained that stability had returned, but jobs remain elusive. It seemed like the town's new mantra.
Mifleh put it best: "A permit means entry into life."
Israel too has started to take pride in a city it used to call a "suicide capital." Instead of exporting dozens of suicide bombers, said Brig.-Gen. (res.) Baruch Spiegel, head of the Security Fence Team, a group appointed by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to administer Palestinian humanitarian needs regarding the security fence, "they are exporting cucumber farmers."
Spiegel, a no-nonsense career officer who last served as the IDF's deputy Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, adds that some 2,500 men are allowed to enter Israel to work "because of the quiet there. The decline in terror to a 'manageable' level has enabled the IDF to remove an entire system of roadblocks and checkpoints within the Jenin Governorate."
Still, soldiers remain at key checkpoints on the edges of the district.
Spiegel's liaison people even report that Palestinian farmers have conquered their fear of the fence and have asked to plant new tobacco fields on the western (Israeli) side of the fence next season. It is their land after all, noted Spiegel.
The sea change, said Spiegel, betraying not a little hope in his voice, will be the joint industrial zone at the nearby Jalame checkpoint, which could one day employ over 10,000 locals. "This could solve many of our problems," he said.
Several European states have expressed interests in getting the project, in limbo since the start of the intifada, off the ground.
Jenin's economic recovery is complimented by UNRWA's reconstruction of the flattened section of Jenin's refugee camp. Pastel-colored buildings transform what once was the blight of the city into one of its brighter spots.
Fatah officials such as Palestinian Legislative Council member Sakhri Turkuman concede that by reducing terrorist attacks and, therefore, incursions, the security fence has "created some stability in Jenin."
"This change, like everything, is relative," said Abu Sheikh, fingering a ring of keys. "A year ago, I could not leave my house [due to periodic sieges and curfews] to buy my baby a can of milk. So the new freedom feels tremendous."
jpost.com |
