Word: banke
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...lazy, somewhat backward mass of people. These people, many Israelis believed, would act differently towards Israel if only they knew better and were told the "truth." Now reality has caught up with both sides. The new encounter has blotted out many of the stereoypes. A visit to the West Bank confirms this...
...Aviv I was told that I would find the occupied West Bank of Jordan poor. One Israeli told me that agriculture was largely unmechanized and therefore backward; that the roads were narrow and bad. He added that the Israelis had now started to improve and widen them. At the Government Tourist Bureau in Tel Aviv I asked how I could get to Nablus, the most prosperous city of the West Bank, some 50 miles from Tel Aviv. I was informed that there was no bus, unless I wanted to travel via Jerusalem. So I went...
...such a trip, many of the Israeli stereotypes of Arab laziness or incompetence are invalidated. It is true that the Arabs of the West Bank reap only half as many tons of wheat per dunam as the Jews in Israel, for instance, and that their yield in grapes or tomatoes is only one-third of the Israeli produce. But this is because much Arab labor is unskilled and there is a scarcity of capital investment in the predominantly agricultural economy of the West Bank. If one keeps that in mind one must conclude that the Arabs are doing well...
...same time there is unemployment. Mayor Kan'an emphasizes this. He admits that there is always a job shortage in Nablus. But previously a man would travel to Amman, Kuwait or Saudi Arabia to find employment, often sending money to his family which remained on the West Bank. Now the frontiers are closed. Naturally the Arabs hold the Jews responsible for this economic hardship...
Mayor Kan'an doubts that the new borders, however temporary, have improved Israeli-Arab relations. He stresses that business contact with the Israelis is a necessity for the West Bank. But he believes that the political climate excludes any contact on a human level: "We Arabs are living under an occupation and are just waiting for the Israeli army to withdraw." According to him the Jews are not helping the cause of peace either: "They are enjoying their victory; they are living on the territory they always dreamt about having." I ask the mayor what will help the cause...