Corbyn's Antisemitism Documented in Arsenal FC Attempted Boycott

Corbyn called for boycott of Arsenal FC

in 2006 in protest of club’s deal with Israeli tourist board

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn offers an Arsenal shirt to the EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. Brussels, Belgium, July 13, 2017 © Pool / Reuters

Jeremy Corbyn urged fans to boycott his favorite football club, Arsenal FC, in 2006, after they struck a sponsorship deal with the Israeli tourist board, saying it’s wrong to treat both 'Israel and Palestinians as equals'.

The Labour leader, who is a lifelong Arsenal FC fan and supporter of the Palestinian people, called on fans to boycott the club, after Israeli holiday destinations were advertised at the stadium. The £350,000 deal was signed off by Dubai-based Emirates airline, Arsenal's prime sponsor, before going ahead, the Mail Online reported.

Speaking at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Trade Union Conference in 2006, Corbyn said: “We must campaign against and boycott Arsenal football club for their arrangement with the Israeli tourist board.”

“It is wrong to treat both parties [Israel and the Palestinians] as equals,” he said, adding:

“The situation is the running sore of US foreign policy.”

The revelation has been met with anger from his opponents, with one social media user urging Corbyn to “stop digging” in reference to the anti-Semitism ‘crisis’ within Labour. Another hopes that he is “roundly booed” the next time he attends an Arsenal football match. The Labour supporters, meanwhile, are asking why the Mail has trawled through 12 years of history to find a “non-story.”

Neil Clark, a journalist and broadcaster said that this latest story on Corbyn is part of an ongoing campaign to push him to the point of resignation – and that it will continue so long as he is Labour leader.

"There is quite clearly a campaign to get Jeremy Corbyn to stand down or failing that to really smear him, try to keep this [story] so often, that he is an anti-Semite or that he is someone that has a problem with Jewish people,” Clark told RT.

He also insisted that people should not be surprised by this latest revelation, as Corbyn has long been “a strong critic of Israel” and that everyone should be free to criticize Israel just like any other country.

"Jeremy Corbyn has been throughout his career an opponent of imperialism and a strong critic of Israel and that's his position,” Clark said.

"His criticism of Israel is legitimate. Israel is a country that should be criticized, that can be criticized. We criticize America, we criticize France, people criticize Russia, and they criticize Germany."

But 'we' don't ever criticize Palestinians in spite of their murdering of innocent Israeli women and children, their firing thousands of missiles into Israel, their teaching their children to hate and kill Jews, their fire-bombing thousands of acres of crops, their refusal to even discuss peace, their single-minded goal of eliminating all Jews from the Middle East. No, we criticize the Jews because they do what they have to do to survive.

A Labour spokesman said: “Jeremy has never boycotted an Arsenal game. He does support targeted action aimed at illegal settlements and the occupation of Palestinian territories, and has backed campaigns to bring it to an end.”

Corbyn is on record as saying that he opposes a boycott of Israel as a whole, but supports a a “targeted” boycott of produce from illegal settlements on the West Bank.

Even though many of them employ Palestinians. Thousands of Palestinians work in the West Bank for Israeli companies and about 100,000 work in Israel. 

‘Shockingly Badly Integrated’ Pakistani Women Live in ‘Entirely Different Society’ in Britain

© justin Tallis / AFP

Pakistani women living in Britain are part of an ‘entirely different’ society and are ‘shockingly badly integrated’ according to a new survey.

The nation’s first disparity audit will reveal entire communities are segregated from their neighbors.

The Cabinet Office study, which will be published on Tuesday, was designed to better understand how people in the UK access healthcare, education, employment and the criminal justice system.

Pakistani women living in the UK, especially those who are not working, and do not speak English, have not integrated into society.

“Other communities have integrated very well, but the audit shows that Pakistani women who don’t speak English or go out to work are living in an entirely different society and are shockingly badly integrated,” a Cabinet Office staffer told the Sunday Times.

While many will be shocked by the report, others may not be surprised.

Teachers in Britain have previously reported some of their pupils have to translate information for their mothers, who cannot communicate with school staff.

Britain must set out rules for immigrants

In December 2016 a major review on community integration by Dame Louise Casey said Britain must set out rules for immigrants.

Casey criticized the government, saying there had been a “saris, samosas and steel drums” policy, rather than real leadership.

She suggested mandatory English lessons and even an oath of allegiance to Britain.

An independent report will be published this week, which will show cuts to benefits and public services are likely to hit Asian families.

Prime Minister Theresa May called for a major audit into societal injustice in the UK.

The Women’s Budget Group and the Runnymede Trust found Asian households will be £11,678 (US$15,390) worse off overall by 2020. At the same time, white families will be £6,199 worse off over 10 years.

“It is only by doing so we can make this country work for everyone, not just a privileged few,” the PM said as she announced the audit.

An “unprecedented” audit on employment showed huge social disparities between white Britons, and black and ethnic minority groups.

A new website, Ethnicity Facts and Figures, will show white Britons are more likely to own their home and have a job than minorities.

They are however, less likely to attend university if they went to a state school.

Currently, the unemployment rate for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people is 8 percent, yet it is 4.6 percent for white British adults.

I'm a little concerned that the focus may be skewed toward women. Yes they need to learn English and make an effort to fit into British society. They might even learn that it is OK to not be invisible. 

But I am more concerned about teaching Pakistani men that it is not OK to use British children like they are sex toys. That will conflict with their interpretation of the Quran by which they are justified to treat a girl as a sex slave if she merely gets into their car or enters a room with them (in their right-hand - or under their control). Mohammed gives men authority to do 'as they wish' with such girls as long as they are not Muslim.

Europe’s Refugee Crisis Is Now Destroying Sweden

By True Publica
Global Research, 

In 2015, at the height of the refugee crisis, Sweden took in more migrants per capita than any other European country.

Then on April 7 this year a terrorist attack, in which an Uzbek man, who was a rejected asylum seeker drove a stolen beer truck into a crowd of shoppers. He ended up killing four people and wounding 15 others. Sweden quickly changed its refugee policy in the face of mounting social problems from within.

Armstrong Economics has had sight of a leaked Swedish report that concludes the Refugee Crisis is now tearing Europe apart. The report has revealed that the number of lawless areas in Sweden alone has now reached 61, rising from 55 in just one year.

The article entitled “Sweden on the brink of legal crisis” says

“Sweden’s National Police Commissioner, Dan Eliasson, came out and pleaded on national television for assistance: “He warned that Swedish police forces can no longer uphold the law. The refugees are so disrespectful that if the free money is cut off, Sweden can quickly find itself in the midst of total chaos. The refugees will turn violent and seek whatever they can from the other regions. When the police come out and ask for help, you know something is seriously wrong.“

Just two months ago Magnus Ranstorp, the head of terrorism research at the Swedish Defense University, said that roughly 12,000 rejected asylum seekers have gone underground. Ranstorp explains what the backlash of refusing refugees asylum looks like and what the implications for its own laws looks like –

“Because you have a lot of people who come in who will not be allowed to stay, and that in itself creates a pool of people who will try to elude themselves from the authorities. They become a shadow population with no rights. And that fuels extremism in all different directions."

There are about 150 known Syrians who have gone back to Syria and fight and then returned to Sweden. Ranstorp says 

“Extremists meet little resistance in Sweden. “It’s not that security services and police are not doing their work. The reason is our counterterrorism laws are difficult to apply. You actually have to prove a violent crime was committed or about to be committed [to be convicted of a crime]. It’s not enough that you joined ISIS.”

Arrests and scuffles after anti-refugee rampage (Source: Al-Jazeera)

Later, in June 2016, Sweden toughened the rules for migrants seeking asylum, limiting who can receive permanent residency, and making it more difficult for parents to reunite with their children. Prior to that Sweden introduced border checks with its neighbours for the first time in 20 years, requiring police to monitor trains and ferries and turn back those who don’t have valid travel documents. Under the previous system, asylum seekers could enter the country unobstructed, regardless of whether they had travel documents, like a passport.

In February this year the BBC reported that Swedish police had launched an investigation after a riot erupted in a predominantly immigrant suburb of the capital, Stockholm. Rioters, some of them wearing masks, threw rocks, set vehicles on fire and looted shops. One officer fired at rioters who threw rocks at police. The unrest in the Rinkeby suburb came after police tried to arrest a suspect on drugs charges.

Things are not much better in many other parts of Europe either. Further south, the Independent reports that

“Italy threatens to close ports to humanitarian refugee rescue ships as it reaches ‘saturation point.”

The move comes amid Italian anger at the lack of help from Europe as it hosts almost 200,000 asylum seekers.

In France Emmanuel Macron’s refugee friendly speeches were one thing, reality is something completely different where the crisis is intensifying. Gérard Collomb, Macron’s interior minister, authorised the transfer of three extra police squadrons to the Calais region. In an interview on June 10th with the Le Parisien newspaper, Collomb said

“Our priority is that Calais and Dunkirk do not remain places of fixation and that ‘Jungles’ do not reconstitute.”

OpenDemocracy describes the squalid, filthy, miserable conditions of refugee camps in Greece, whilst Mediterranean countries including Spain sees record numbers of refugees arrive. The UN Migration Agency said 8,863 migrants were rescued trying to reach their coast from Libya between June 24 and 27, another report sees over 10,000 arriving in just three days in the last week of June.

Towards Eastern Europe, some 13,000 migrants are still stranded in Bulgaria, the European Union’s poorest country. In an attempt to prevent illegal crossings, the country built a fence on its border with Turkey and reinforced its border controls amid the backdrop of migrant rioters clashing with police. Hungary and Poland have refused to take any refugees amid a political crisis where the highest EU courts is the battle ground against the quota demands of Brussels.

Findings from the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey published last week show Brexit was the result of widespread concern over the numbers of people coming to the UK. The refugee crisis and migrants from Europe ended up causing the biggest upset in modern British history and threatens the existence of the EU project.

To defend itself, the EU is now spending tens of Millions in an attempt to stop migrants and refugees leaving Libya. The country’s ongoing civil war, started by Britain, France and NATO has left Africa’s wealthiest nation is ruins. Now daily allegations of torture, rape and killings earn it the moniker of “hell on Earth” among migrants.

Research by the US-based Refugees International (RI) group warned that the EU’s push to prevent boats leaving the Libyan coast – now the main departure point towards Europe – could fuel horrific abuses.

In the end, the dichotomy is here. Europe is facing a serious slow down in birth rates so it needs migration to boost working age populations to drive growth. Migrants arriving in such circumstances are on balance either not educated enough or can’t speak the various languages of the EU, rendering 83 percent unemployable for at least 5 to 10 years according to the latest statistics from Germany, the country with the largest migrant/refugee intake over the last few years.

Herbert Bruecker of the IAB Institute for Employment Research said experience showed around 50 percent of migrants tended to have found employment after living in Germany for five years, at least 60 percent were in work after 10 years and 70 percent after 15 years.

All this is a huge strain on the economy of countries accepting refugees whilst having austerity forced upon them by unelected bureaucrats of the EU. It is hardly surprising that public sentiment to mass immigration into Europe is negative, politically charged and leading to civil unrest.

Norway Migrant Integration Goes into Reverse after 5- to 10-year Stay

Although refugees who come to Norway rapidly integrate into the labor market, the gap between their and locals’ employment will increase again after just five to 10 years, a study says. 

The study was carried out in February by researchers from Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research amid Europe's growing refugee crisis. It showed that refugees and immigrants from “low income source countries” are seeing their integration reversed with ”widening immigrant-native employment differentials” and concluded that immigrants are going to become more and more dependent on social insurance.

Frisch senior researcher and co-author of the study Knut Røed told RT that they were looking into immigrants’ performance, including refugees, humanitarian and family immigrants, in the labor market for more than 20 years to get their results.

“They relatively rapidly integrate into the Norwegian labor market, but then after some years – five to 10 years – there is a sense of immigration in reverse. So the difference in employment rates of natives and immigrants start to increase again and a lot of immigrants fall out of the labor market,” the researcher told RT.

He added that refugees and migrants can have “a huge potential,” and the situation can be changed with more investment in education and human capital.

“Those who received education in Norway and therefore also learned the Norwegian language probably better than the others, they have much stronger attachments to the labor market, and they remain in the labor market for a much longer period of time.”

As the refugee crisis has been building up momentum, the ability to integrate into society has been at the core of the debate on immigration policy in Europe. As Europe was struggling with the influx of asylum-seekers, some hoped that the situation could be beneficial for European economies, while others constantly warned about the threat that refugees pose to European countries.

Hansjoerg Mueller from the Alternative for Germany right-wing party praised the results of the study during a fierce debate on RT, saying that “that study has proved that it is not right to blame us, the immigrants have to be blamed for their not enough willingness to integrate into the host countries.”

His opponent, social commentator Mo Ansar, blamed the politician for not accepting any model of integration and advocated coexistence in a plural society, where people are free to live following their own religion, culture and sexual identity. This model was slammed by Mueller, who said it could lead to “a civil war and bloodshed.”

10 years from now there will be many more migrants in Norway than there are now and fewer ethnic Norwegians in the marketplace to support those migrants on social assistance. It will not be a comfortable situation and there are no obvious ways to improve it.

I would suspect, however, that it is somewhat temporary as second generation migrants will be better educated and able to join the workforce like other Norwegians. It's the next 20 years or so that will be especially problematic.

Luxury – Not Poverty – in the Palestinian Authority

Luxurious living on the West Bank

House of a Palestinian businessman. Looks like he's doing alright.

Alongside the slums of the old refugee camps, which the Palestinian government has done little to rehabilitate, a parallel wealthy Palestinian society is emerging.

In communities throughout the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, a surprising degree of luxury exists alongside the poverty. This study includes “A Photo Album of Palestinian Luxury in the West Bank,” offering a more complete picture of living standards there. The truth is that alongside the slums of the old refugee camps, which the Palestinian government has done little to rehabilitate, a parallel Palestinian society is emerging.

When we think of the Palestinian areas of the West Bank, we think of refugee camps like these:


Balata refugee camp near Nablus


 Balata refugee camp near Nablus


Beit Jibrin refugee camp in Bethlehem


Jenin refugee camp


Deheishe refugee camp in Bethlehem

Palestinian Refugees
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) defines a refugee as someone who, “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) defines Palestinians as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.” The descendants of male Palestinian refugees, including adopted children, are also eligible for registration. When the Agency began operations in 1950, it was responding to the needs of about 750,000 Palestine refugees. Today, some 5 million Palestine refugees are eligible for UNRWA services.

This unorthodox UNRWA definition of “refugee” eternalizes the Palestinian refugee problem. Sixty-three years is time enough for three, perhaps four, generations. Imagine the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of Jewish refugees who came to the U.S. after the Holocaust referring to themselves as refugees.

Moreover, given the UN definition of a refugee is someone “outside the country of his nationality,” how can there be refugees living within the Palestinian Authority?

As of July 1, 2014, 762,288 refugees were said to be living in 19 camps spread out in the West Bank. Over the past 67 years the UN and the U.S. have poured billions into the camps to upgrade living conditions. What Palestinian advocates like to call “camp shelters” are typically 4-5 story concrete apartment buildings with electricity, kitchens, satellite television and municipal garbage collection.  According to the UN, 99.8% of camp shelters are “connected to water networks” and 87% are “connected to sewerage networks.”

The Economist reported that by 2013 almost 70 percent of West Bank Palestinian refugees lived outside the refugee camps. However, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) seeks to maintain the camps and opposes and prevents refugee resettlement. As the PLO slogan goes, A Palestinian refugee never moves out of his camp except to return home (i.e., to Israel).

Unlike all other refugees in previous centuries who were absorbed in their countries of residence, the issue of Palestinian refugees remains on the world agenda due to a political decision by the Arab states to keep them as “refugees.”

After the 1948 war, Jordan and Egypt could have absorbed the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, which they controlled as part of their own countries. Yet the political motivations of the Arabs for keeping the Palestinian refugee issue alive are clear. Both Arab governments and the Arab League opposed granting citizenship to Palestinian refugees in their countries because it would undermine the use of the right of return to eliminate the Jewish state. The end result was that the Palestinian refugees became political pawns.

This fact was stated succinctly by the former head of UNRWA, Ralph Galloway: “The Arab states do not want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront to the UN, and as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders do not give a damn whether Arab refugees live or die.”

Moreover, calling these people refugees makes no sense. Few if any live in tent camps or temporary residences. Most own their homes and live in areas of towns that can be classified as working class neighborhoods. Rather than refugees, they are simply the recipients of assistance, mainly for education and health.

The Other Side of the West Bank Palestinian Story
There is more to this story, a side often overlooked. In communities throughout the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, a surprising degree of luxury exists alongside the poverty. After receiving billions of dollars in Western aid over many decades, major improvements are visible in the standard of living in the West Bank, as seen in newly-constructed buildings, late-model cars, and luxury items.

This study offers an often overlooked window into life in the Palestinian Authority. The empirical data, together with the photographic evidence sourced here, provide a more complete picture of living standards in the West Bank.  The truth is that alongside the slums of the old refugee camps, which the Palestinian government has done little to rehabilitate, a parallel Palestinian society is emerging.

Marwan Asmar, a Jordan-based journalist with a PhD in political science from Leeds University in the UK, described this phenomenon upon returning to the West Bank after 30 years:

There has been a total transformation since I was last in Howara in the West Bank in 1985. One can see a buzz of activity at the shops, restaurants, offices and cafes. This wasn’t the sleepy village I saw long ago. Buildings, villas, mosques and rest areas have been constructed everywhere. There is even a swimming pool.

This was certainly not the picture I had in mind. This was not the picture the media presents – of Palestinians surviving on daily wages of $2 as pointed out by the World Bank, of high unemployment and pockets of poverty. The people I spoke to here said many worked as laborers in Israel and were paid high daily wages. This is how they could build their houses, they told me.

As speculation continues about renewing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, it is important to understand how the quality of life in the West Bank has improved and how a new Palestinian society is emerging – one that requires a changed perception of the reality of Palestinian life.

While the Arab world is in the throes of a major melt-down – with widespread violence and destruction in Syria and Iraq, together with serious instability in Lebanon and Egypt – daily life for Arabs in the West Bank offers a stark contrast to those scenes of violence and decline.

Palestinian Quality of Life in the West Bank – Indicators

Foreign Aid
Since the establishment of Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza in the mid-1990s, the U.S. government has committed approximately $5 billion in bilateral assistance to the Palestinians, who are among the world’s largest per capita recipients of international foreign aid. Overall, Palestinians receive approximately $2 billion in aid each year. Palestinian economic analysts estimate that the PA has received a total of $25 billion in financial aid during the past two decades.

Poverty
The CIA World Factbook reported the poverty rate in the West Bank as 18% in 2011, in contrast to Israel’s poverty rate in 2012 of 21%.

Life Expectancy
In 2015, life expectancy in the West Bank was 76 years.  This was notably higher than the life expectancy in Arab states of 71 years (in 2012), and the average life expectancy around the world of 70 years.

Infant Mortality
In 2015, the infant mortality rate in the West Bank and Gaza was 13 per 1,000 live births, compared with 27 per 1,000 live births in the Arab states in 2013 and 36.58 per 1,000 live births in the world in 2014.

Literacy
In 2015 the literacy rate for people aged 15 and above in the West Bank and Gaza was 96.5%.

Education
In 2011, when Palestinians were asked “Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the education system?” 63.5% answered “satisfied”, a higher percentage than the U.S. (62.8), Netherlands (60.3), Sweden (61.6) or Japan (54.6).  The overall percentage in Arab states was 50.0%.

Water Resources
Palestinians insist that they suffer from water shortages due to Israeli policies. However, data shows that Israel has fulfilled all of its obligations according to the signed water agreements with the PA. The development of water supply systems for Palestinian communities has been carried out on an extensive scale, much larger than that called for in the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement.

From 1967-1995 (prior to the signing of the Interim Agreement), the total amount of water supplied to the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria increased from 66 to 120 million cubic meters per year. This additional water was mainly used for domestic consumption. During this period, the number of towns and villages connected to running water through modern supply systems increased from four to 309 communities. In March 2010, 641 of 708 Palestinian communities, which include more than 96 percent of the Palestinian population, were found to be connected to a running water network. Water supply networks for an additional 16 villages (encompassing an additional 2.5 percent of the population) were under construction.

Palestinians claim that the water consumption of the average Israeli is four times greater than that of the average Palestinian. However, this claim is not factually supported. In 1967, there was indeed a large gap in the per capita consumption of water between Israelis and Palestinians due to the ancient water supply systems that existed in the West Bank under British and then Jordanian rule, which needed upgrading. This gap, however, was reduced during the Israeli administration period and the difference is now negligible. The per capita consumption of natural, fresh water in Israel is 150 m3/c/y and in the PA 140 m3/c/y.

In Jordan and Syria, most towns and villages are still not connected to running water. In Amman and Damascus, water distribution takes place only once or twice each week. According to the PA, roughly 33.6 percent of their water leaks from internal pipelines, compared with 11 percent in Israel. Moreover, the Palestinians have violated their part of the water agreements by refusing to build sewage treatment plants (despite available international financing). Thus, raw sewage discharged from Palestinian communities flows freely in many streams in the West Bank.

Palestinian Employment in Israel
In 2014, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, published an article lauding Israeli employers for their treatment of Palestinian workers in Israel. The article stated, “Whenever Palestinian workers have the opportunity to work for Israeli employers, they are quick to quit their jobs with their Palestinian employers – for reasons having to do with salaries and other rights….The salaries of workers employed by Palestinians amount to less than half the salaries of those who work for Israeli employers.”

“The [Israeli] work conditions are very good, and include transportation, medical insurance and pensions. These things do not exist with Palestinian employers….Muhammad Al-Hinnawi, a construction worker, says: ‘I receive a daily salary of 70 shekels, without pension, and I have no other choice.’ By contrast, Thaer Al-Louzi, who used to work for an Israeli concrete factory, notes: ‘I received a salary of 140 shekels a day. Now, after I was injured, I receive a salary through the insurance.’”

According to Bassem Eid, founder of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, 92,000 Arabs from the West Bank work in Israel each day.

Happiness
According to the 2012 Happy Planet Index – a survey conducted by the New Economics Forum to measure happiness around the world – the Palestinian Authority was the third happiest Arab country and the 30th happiest in the world, making the PA happier than many developed countries like the US, UK, Sweden, Australia and Canada.

Algeria – 52.2
Jordan – 51.7
Palestinian Authority – 51.2
Iraq – 49.2
Tunisia – 48.3
Morocco – 47.9
Syria – 47.1
Saudi Arabia – 46.0
Yemen – 43.0
Lebanon – 42.9
Libya – 40.8
Egypt – 39.6
Sudan – 37.6
Djibouti – 37.2
Comoros – 36.5
Mauritania – 32.3
UAE – 31.8
Kuwait – 27.1
Bahrain – 26.6
Qatar – 25.2

A Photo Album of Palestinian Luxury in the West Bank

Completing the Picture of Palestinian Life in the West Bank
Ramallah’s landscape is undergoing a transformation. Multi-story villas fronted by ornamental porticos and columns are rising on Ramallah’s hilltops along with glass and marble office buildings. There are newly paved roads. Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts opened Ramallah’s first five-star hotel. The 172-room, $40 million hotel boasts a head chef imported from Florence, a pastry chef from Paris, and a lobby bedecked in marble and Italian suede.

Across the West Bank, similar scenes are unfolding. Building cranes pierce the sky. Outside Nablus, new car dealerships sell everything from BMWs to Hyundais. In Ramallah, the Mercedes dealership does a brisk business selling luxury-class sports cars and sport-utility vehicles to wealthy Palestinians with sticker prices ranging from $100,000 to $200,000. The Hirbawi Home Center opened just outside Jenin. The five-story shopping mall cost $5 million. Fireworks marked the opening. On the fifth floor in-demand electric gadgets may be found: enormous TV screens, vacuum cleaners, espresso machines. The prices are not much cheaper than in Israel, perhaps except for the furniture. One can find china plates, crystal, and classical furniture. The chain’s CEO, Ziad Turabi, says, “We believe we can make a very handsome profit. Many people in the…territories have money but they have nowhere to spend it if they’re after quality. We offer them the best quality there is.”

This may not sound like the familiar description of the West Bank – the impoverished Palestinian village or the overcrowded refugee camp, a population sustaining itself on international aid. But it turns out that quite a few Palestinians consider a plasma screen, a surround sound stereo and comfortable chairs to be fairly essential items.


The West Bank: Cities and Towns Featured in the Photos


Ramallah


Palestinian Trade Tower, Ramallah

“In Ramallah it is difficult to get a table in a good restaurant. There are new apartment buildings, banks, brokerage firms, luxury car dealerships and health clubs.”34


Bank of Palestine, Ramallah


Padico House, Ramallah

There are a couple dozen more photos of modern office buildings, luxury resort hotels, and fabulous villas that should more properly be called palaces, here. Who is using all these hotels? It's mind-boggling.