Kiwis for Balanced Reporting on the Middle East

Kiwis for Balanced Reporting On The Mideast New Zealand Media bias

January 3, 2010

An unreported boom in the Middle East

When the Wall Street Journal article about Palestinian prosperity (Dec. 14 post) was not picked up by any newspaper, a Kiwi who now lives in what is called the West Bank decided to write his own first-hand account. It came as no surprise that this also was not published by any NZ newspaper and therefore in order to provide the public with the missing truth the entire article is reproduced here.

The only sort of boom from the Middle East that New Zealanders usually read about these days is the sound of exploding bombs and armed conflict. Each of these ‘booms’ is usually portrayed in the media as Israel's fault, while the terrorist organisations perpetrating the terror are usually portrayed as innocent victims. Given the steady diet of negative reporting about Israel, one can hardly be surprised that the average New Zealand reader, listener or viewer believes the worst about the Jewish State in its ongoing struggle to protect itself.

However, there is another sort of boom taking place that is not so widely reported — perhaps because it shows Israel in a positive light and does not fit the stereotype perception of the ‘poor Palestinians’. I am referring to the economic boom that is happening in West Bank areas under the control of the Arab Palestinian Authority. In most of the major cities, such as Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem and Qalqilya, the signs are there for an unbiased observer to see. New shopping malls, cinemas and businesses have sprung up and the market places are bursting with food of all descriptions. Tourism is at an all time high and new hotels are being built to accommodate the influx of tourists, which reaches a peak during the Christmas holiday season.

This boom is taking place with support and help from Israel. Many of the checkpoints that were originally erected to curb the tide of suicide bombers entering Israel have been removed, allowing free and unimpeded transport of people and goods between the population centres. Israeli agricultural experts have trained Palestinian Arab farmers in highly productive farming methods, and supplied them with pesticides and state of the art irrigation equipment. Israel is also helping to plan public parks and civic amenities and has provided 3,000 tree seedlings for a forest to be planted on the outskirts of a new Palestinian city.

If anyone thinks that this is all a mirage and untrue, they should get hold of the December 3, Wall Street Journal and read the article ‘Building Peace Without Obama's Interference’ by Tom Gross, a respected Middle East analyst and former correspondent for the UK Sunday Telegraph. After a recent visit he expressed his amazement at the many signs of prosperity:

‘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.’

In Hebron, he was surprised to see

‘villas comparable in size to those on the Cote d'Azur or Bel Air [that] 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.’

Even in Gaza, Gross reports that the markets are crammed with food and goods, demolishing the conventionally held belief that Gazans are being starved by the actions of the Israeli Government.

Gross is not alone in his observations. The International Monetary Fund has projected a 7 % growth.

What makes this boom all the more welcome is the fact that the Nobel Peace Prize winner, the late Yasser Arafat, personally amassed a fortune estimated at over 1 billion dollars, some of it courtesy of a gullible international community, while his people remained in misery and economic deprivation.
Today, it is Israel, the Jewish State so reviled by biased experts and hypocritical politicians that is providing the help and expertise necessary for the health and welfare of its neighbours. This is being done to lay the foundations for a viable Palestinian Arab State that can live in peace and harmony with the Jewish State, if only the Arab Palestinian leadership will grasp the opportunities being offered.