Bombs in Gaza, Parties in Ramallah
As Hamas-Fatah tensions increase across the West Bank and Gaza, the city of Ramallah has become a bustling oasis from strife.
The car bomb that exploded last weekend in the Gaza Strip killed not only six Palestinians, but seems to have completely wiped out any hope of ending the ongoing strife between Hamas Islamists and Fatah secular loyalists.
Tensions have greatly increased since the incident. According to sources in Gaza, Hamas officials have set up roadblocks across the Strip to check for guns, explosives, and suspects. The atmosphere of fear and suspicion in the early days of the Hamas takeover has returned to the streets and at least six people were wounded last Sunday as clashes broke out in Gaza City after Hamas-run security forces battled members of the Army of Islam group.
In the West Bank, the story is more complicated. While the Palestinian political world remains in turmoil, the West Bank still struggles for normality — and achieves it, but only selectively. While northern West Bank cities like Nablus and Jenin remain tense, in the heart of Palestine the city of Ramallah seems more effervescent than ever — full of tourists, crowded coffee shops, and active daily life even as the headlines spell trouble; it is as if the city is in a strange quiet before a storm.
The violent escalation over the past week may challenge Palestinian and Israeli analysts who are currently asking themselves whether the situation can deteriorate even more, but the news doesn’t seem to bother Ramallah’s citizens. Many new and trendy Western-style coffee shops and restaurants have opened this summer, tourists came back to the streets around al-Manara Square, and despite the price index high of 10.20% during the first quarter of the year, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, commerce is buzzing.
It’s easy to notice a huge variety of languages, cultures, and Western faces among the crowded tables of Cafe de la Paix, next to Ramallah’s city hall. Pilgrims, foreign NGOs’ personnel, journalists, and Palestinians from other West Bank cities have found a perfect place to spend some quality leisure time. The peace is broken only when nearby mosques play the muazzin calls for prayers.
Palestinian analyst and businessman Sam Bahou says the city is definitely going through a “five-star occupation,” pushed by the resumption of hundreds of millions of dollars received by the Palestinian Authority by international donors. Besides that, the recent high oil prices have created additional revenues for oil-rich countries like Qatar and other Gulf nations, which are investing: music festivals and other cultural activities haven’t been so lively in the past few years, says Mohammad B, a shop owner.
“I know it sounds like a cheap cliché, but trust me, it’s true. Life here can be good and we are working to make it a better place. Even though there’s no extra money in the Palestinians’ pockets, at least in Ramallah we still can have some fun, go out for a good dinner, watch a movie. If it depended on politics and politicians, we would sit at home in deep depression. We have to improve our lives ourselves. We can’t stand this political impasse anymore, so trying to have a normal life is kind of an obligation. We have fun, move forward, and forget the official mud we are immersed in. If we can’t go to Manhattan, we at least decided to bring a bit of Manhattan here,” he laughs.
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Rinat Malkes is a Tel Aviv-based journalist.
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14 Comments
1. Lisa:Of COURSE Hamas is rearming. Duh. They do that every time there is a lull. It’s a pretty consistent cycle… blow up everything they can, try to call a cease fire for a bit all “we just wanna live normal lives”, stock up on more weapons and blow up everything they can blaming it on the Jews.
When the Palestinians love their kids more than they love killing Jews, we’ll have peace. The only other way to have peace is to lock them down so tightly that they CAN’T blow anything up.
Jul 30, 2008 - 11:29 am 2. mike:ramallah? you mean where those two jews were publicly lynched and their bodies dragged through the city by a mob 8 years ago?
no thanks, because behind the lights and bustle are citizens ready to kill with their bare hands if the opportunity arises.
Jul 30, 2008 - 12:43 pm 3. rocketeer:Lisa – right on the money. The Palestinians are a death cult with guns, nothing more then common thugs like you would see in any gang-infested inner city. Until they grow up as a society and realize that life is better then death, there is nothing we can do with them but kill them in greater numbers then they kill us.
Jul 30, 2008 - 3:26 pm 4. David P:why would tourists ever want to visit the global welfare capital of ramallah, all shops sell the same crappy knick-knacks throughout the whole country.
Jul 30, 2008 - 3:29 pm 5. gila:I am sick and tired of all these racist comments!!!!,
Jul 30, 2008 - 6:54 pm 6. Danny:Lisa, what do you mean by “when the palestinian love their kids more etc”, do the israelis love their children more? If so, why don’t they make peace?
Mike, can you hear the racist and ugly sound of the sentences you just wrote???
Rocketeer, “until they grow up”, is the israeli society grown up??? as far as I can see, it’s quite infantile…
Gila, Israel can make peace when there is someone to make peace with. Israel did ALL the running in the 90s and it got a bloody uprising with more Israelis killed during the “peace talks” than were killed during decades of “war” with the Palestinians. Israel has pulled out to the mm from South Lebanon and Gaza, but stayed in the West Bank and the Golan. Where does all the current violence come from? Where is absolutely quiet? Given the answers to those questions why would Israel pull out from more territory?
As for Israelis love of their children we just paid the price to get two coffins back.
Jul 30, 2008 - 8:44 pm 7. Zouheir Alnajjar:Well . Good Job Rinat ,
Jul 31, 2008 - 2:49 am 8. Lisa:But Situation in Gaza Strip is more than “Hamas officials have set up roadblocks across the Strip to check for guns, explosives, and suspects.”
Rinat !! i’ve put Your Article on Current tv network
check it out : http://current.com/items/89154836_bombs_in_gaza_parties_in_ramallah
Gila..
Palestinians send their children to Hamas summer camps and schools to learn about how Jews are the sons of pigs and apes and sing songs about how much fun it is to kill the Jews. There are calls for Palestinian children to come out into the streets and throw rocks at soldiers. They use children as human shields and raise them to be martyrs. Hell, they’ve used retarded teens as suicide bombers.
Israel has tried and tried again and again to make peace… in 1948, in 1967, in 1973, Oslo, Camp David and more. They’ve made peace with their neighbors who have chosen to give up destroying the state.
So yes, I think Israelis do love their children more but no matter how much you love your children, you can’t make peace with someone whose sole ambition is your death and the death of your entire family.
Jul 31, 2008 - 8:26 am 9. NahnCee:When ever did one person calling the other person a racist change any thing? Ever? It’s just a stupid attempt at moral blackmail, but then that’s all the Pal’s (and Arabs) are good at is blackmail. And blowing s*** up.
Jul 31, 2008 - 12:34 pm 10. Tariq:Good article RENATA (just for Brazilians, hahaha). Hope to read more of your articles here.
Jul 31, 2008 - 1:02 pm 11. Mary:Yikes – what a complex issue here. I had just read an article on http://www.vision.org which helped me understand the conflict from a more historical perspective (”Triumph and Tragedy in the Middle East – What Happened 60 Years Ago, and Why Jerusalem Won’t Go Away” by David Hulme) but this conflict adds more complexity yet. This issue is a hot bed I can see that from the comments above. There is no side at this point that could possibly be “right” if killings and bombings are any indication. It is very helpful to take a moment and think about the similarities between the sides – what is this all about – the right to have family and business and peace and happiness. But that surely can’t be arrived at by hate and prejudice and not understanding the historical perspective.
Jul 31, 2008 - 2:30 pm 12. The Anti Jihadist:I have no compassion for these ‘Palestinians’, none at all. Arafat turned down a gilded offer of ‘Palestinian’ statehood back in 2000 and declared war instead on his erstwhile ‘peace partner’. After this stroke of brilliance, the Pals followed up by electing a bunch of thugs into office, who promised more efficient government and more efficient terrorism against the hated Zionists. Of course, Hamas failed on both counts.
The Pals have only succeeded in impoverishing themselves and getting a lot of people (mostly Pals) killed. The Pals, in their zest for hatred of all things Jewish, have also likely succeeded in planting the seeds of hatred into their children, another generation of eager ‘martyrs in waiting’. War without end. It would be tragic if it wasn’t all so predictable.
The Pals have no one but themselves to blame, but remember, the Middle East in particular, and Islam in general, are not too well known for critical self examination.
Jul 31, 2008 - 9:29 pm 13. abu al-fin:Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. What a death-loving cult of misbegotten left-behinds. The best Palestinians left that land long ago. What remains is a breeding farm for civilian killing suicide bombers.
Aug 2, 2008 - 1:35 pm 14. JFP:Hey, gila, you sexist homophobe. Everyone knows that women and gays are treated better by the Israelis than by the Palestinians.
Aug 3, 2008 - 6:50 am