Patrick Martin
In Ramallah, home of the Palestinian Authority, business booms and street life is vibrant. Housing construction appears back in business. Cafe life, especially in the more Christian districts, has regained some of the European-style for which the city was famous. Several boutique hotels do a fine trade and a Movenpick hotel is due to open in the new year. Many shops in Ramallah are superior to anything found in Arab eastern Jerusalem, so a large number of Jerusalemites are actually going to Ramallah to shop.
Hebron has wasted little time in donning its old prosperity. Shops flourish, people are working, and the roads are remarkably efficient, with traffic lights carefully obeyed in neighborhoods where chaos reigned just a few years ago. Some of the best restaurants have now moved to luxurious new premises.
(Globe and Mail-Canada)
