Bullies

I've always despised bullies. And yet I have to contend with them, not directly, but sort of directly, because it affects my life here. I understand why Dr. Andrew Weil insists on news fasts because it's Friday morning, my day off work and the first thing I do is read the paper and get upset. Two things got me riled up this morning - an article in the Jerusalem Post about British contractors fleeing Jenin after months of threats and intimidation, and after shots were fired at their headquarters. Threats from Israelis? I read further. They were working on the construction of 435 Jenin apartments (on a $27 million project funded by the United Arab Emirates and the Red Crescent) which featured Italian marble kitchen tops and ceramic tiles, and built to European construction standards, which are, in my opinion, probably of a better quality than Middle Eastern construction standards (except for Hubby's high standards). Why? Many inhabitants were suspicious that the construction and attempts to move them to less crowded areas would undermine their status as refugees. OK. So they'd rather live in squalor than to better their quality of life because of political reasons??? Another reason was that one building had an extension which was made when one of the powerful clans in the camp "bullied" the contractors. Neighbors may have gotten jealous of one building getting "more" than what they were alloted. Nevertheless, these contractors got up and left and the project is at a standstill.

The next item in the news was a story about a beauty contest called "Miss Seam Line" - Not hem line, or anything perverse - but a beauty contest for the young Jewish ladies of the neighborhood of Gilo and young Palestinian girls from the adjacent town of Beit Jala. There had been alot of shooting from the Beit Jala neighborhood into Gilo a few years ago when the Intifada started, with the Beit Jala residents claiming that the shooters were not from their "hood". So now you have this attempt to reconcile the two neighboring neighborhoods. There were 8 Palestinian girls who signed up for it but each one dropped out because of threats made by some members of the Palestinian Authority to each of the families. Sad, isn't it. It would have made a good opportunity for peace. But the political entity on the Palestinian side would have none of that. And it makes me sad that the Palestinians have no other rival leadership to the PLO that would make a sincere bid for peace. And this is one of the reasons why they suffer.