Yesterday I travelled to the Shaar Benjamin Industrial Park, a stone throw distance from the Qalandia Palestinian Refugee Camp. Twelve years ago, a Sepharadi baker from the nearby Adam settlement, was the first to move to the new business park, and contracted me to design a three floor building. He added a restaurant. There was nothing in that stony desert but a Rami Levy Supermarket, built - I think - for Ramallah Arab customers. He later rented the building to the police and built a larger bakery on the main street (pic). Planned by me too. Now he is expanding and called me. It seems to me that Arabic speaking Jews feel at home in the Shomron, bought land, started businesses, built large buildings and made money.
The GPS is not working well in the West Bank so I followed Google Map route that made me ramble all over Samaria. I arrived at midday dead tired. The place has grown but still is quite empty. The Palestinian contractor explained to me that Ramallah has developed and is full of supermarkets and shops which are cheaper and people do not need Shaar Benjamin. The man dreams of joining his brother in Sevilla, "for his children". There are five or ten very rich people in Ramallah, he said, the rest are poor. A typical Middle East dictatorship. The next door Qalandia Refugee Camp is not a camp but a typical Arab East Jerusalem neighborhood, from the road it looks clean and well maintained.
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