No Way Through

Wandering around downtown Nablus the shops and restaurants I saw were full. There were plenty of expensive cars on the streets. Indeed I counted considerably more BMWs and Mercedes than I've seen, for example, in downtown Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.

... The shops and restaurants were also full when I visited Hebron recently, and I was surprised to see villas comparable in size to those on the Cote d'Azur or Bel Air had sprung up on the hills around the city. Life is even better in Ramallah, where it is difficult to get a table in a good restaurant. New apartment buildings, banks, brokerage firms, luxury car dealerships and health clubs are to be seen. In Qalqilya, another West Bank city that was previously a hotbed of terrorists and bomb-makers, the first ever strawberry crop is being harvested in time to cash in on the lucrative Christmas markets in Europe. Local Palestinian farmers have been trained by Israeli agriculture experts and Israel supplied them with irrigation equipment and pesticides.

A new Palestinian city, Ruwabi, is to be built soon north of Ramallah. Last month, the Jewish National Fund, an Israeli charity, helped plant 3,000 tree seedlings for a forested area the Palestinian planners say they would like to develop on the edge of the new city. Israeli experts are also helping the Palestinians plan public parks and other civic amenities.

...In June, the Washington Post’s Jackson Diehl related how Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had told him why he had turned down Ehud Olmert's offer last year to create a Palestinian state on 97% of the West Bank (with 3% of pre-1967 Israeli land being added to make up the shortfall). ‘In the West Bank we have a good reality,’ Abbas told Diehl. ‘The people are living a normal life,’ he added in a rare moment of candor to a Western journalist.

Nablus stock exchange head Ahmad Aweidah went further in explaining to me why there is no rush to declare statehood, saying ordinary Palestinians need the IDF to help protect them from Hamas, as their own security forces aren't ready to do so by themselves yet.

The truth is that an independent Palestine is now quietly being built, with Israeli assistance.

This is just more antisemitic propaganda from the Israel bashing morons. This kind of mindless bullshit is an insult to the intelligence of any decent human being who believes in truth and justice. This post stinks and is voted down.

An aggressive occupier and thief of other people's land? There was a time-ever hear of the Balfour Declaration?-when GREAT BRITAIN admitted that that was Jewish land. Israel went in in self-defence after Jordan attacked it. (Or was Gaza part of Egypt, and the Israelis launched a pre-emptive strike because they got a little scared when Nasser was bragging that the Egyptians were going to push the Jews into the sea?)
The Gazans are as entitled to self-defence as anybody, and they know as well as anybody-as you-that if they don't shoot at the Israelis, the Israelis won't shoot at them.
"A people whose land has been occupied illegally for over 40 years?" It's illegal for Jews to want to stay alive? You don't count very well. The Israelis pulled out of Gaza in 2005.
Do you realize that the minute a person says that the Israelis are illegally occupying "Palestinian" land, he's admitting that Jordan is Palestine and that the now-called "Palestinians" (during the Mandatory Period, hundreds of thousands of Jews were Palestinians. It said so right on their birth certificates) are Jordan's responsibility? As I am sure you know, the now-called "Palestinians" are culturally, linguistically and historically Arabs, like the Egyptians, Syrians and Jordanians-all the people who could have prevented the whole tragic "Palestinian refugee problem" from developing in the first place if they had either accepted the U.N. partition plan and refrained from attacking Israel or taken in the Arabs who were either expelled from Israel after five Arab states attacked it or left Israel voluntarily, figuring Israel would be defeated in a week and they could come back and loot Jewish property.

so some healthcare vortex exists in jordan that prevents supplies from crossing that border?
the entire eastern boarder has not a single israeli dictating its status.but somehow despite jordan treating palastinians worse than israel its all israels fault?
what country is it again that allows free open boarders with a hostile terror endorsing nieghbors who vow to destroy them?
i know its crazy but maybe just maybe the west bank would have free access (as they had for the majority of israels existance) if it wasnt feared that an open boarder wouldnt result in shootings and suicide bombings
its interesting that this story doesnt acknowledge last week palastinians took down a wall segment and vowed to take jerusalem not share but rule.
that two months ago the removal of wall segments in the west bank were met with the shooting of israelis
that in 2005 gaza was given complete muslum autonimy and in response used it to launch more rockets deeper into israel.
why would any logical person expect israel to tolerate this no other nation would be expected to. why the excessive standard for israel?

I can't wait for the day when there are no more nationalistic boarders.

Very powerful video. The attention to this issue most definitely needed.
The worse part is NO ONE is protesting this horrible human suffering instead gay marriage protests are publicized. Where is the balance? Where is the attention to real human suffering and injustice?
There are issues in our country and in the world that need urgent attention but many choose to focus only on their little and comparatively insignificant issues.

Dear Religion: Thanks again.

Good piece. Horrible that it is routinely true. It is unfortunate that the US does nothing to try to stop this behavior because Israel can not be relied on to stop it themselves.

This is the kind of film that needs more exposure to the mainstream. Current TV is good but I hope there are other venues for pieces like this too -- not just the Current demographic.