Trade is blooming in Nablus after eight years of commercial drought, as Arabs from Israel return to shop in a city declared off-limits in 2000 as a font of Palestinian militancy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. … The door [was] open for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. …
Chamber of Commerce President Basel Kanaan said such a scene would have been impossible had Nablus not been a focal point of a recent U.S.- backed Palestinian law-and- order campaign. …
Nablus, historically the West Bank’s commercial hub, was largely controlled by gunmen in the wake of the September 2000 Palestinian uprising, and was a symbol of lawlessness. Unemployment in the city climbed to 40 percent as travel bans bit into economic activity.
Now Western-backed Prime Minister Salam Fayyad wants Israel to help improve trade by removing the barriers, and Middle East envoy Tony Blair is also pressing to reduce checkpoints. Fayyad’s law-and- order campaign has shown enough success to convince Israel to test relaxing the ban. …
"This will help boost the Palestinian economy, plus we can buy cheaper," said Maysoon Abu Kishek, from the city of Lod in Israel. Nablus businessman Othman Musleh agreed. "Now there’s a sense of hope that the economy will gradually pick up." Access the full article>>