• • rk• • 4 I '10 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
THE ALL-IN-ONE STORE WHERE QUALITY IS MADE AFFORDABLE!
A*4
FINANCING
& LAYAWAYS
AV LABLE
We Carry
CONNELLY
ANTIQUE STYLE TABLE
from
$
1 1 9 5 " 1::rensen
Everything You Need in Game Room Furnishing, Bar Stools, Pub Tables and Arcade Games
The Only Place Where You Can "TRY IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT!"
"IT PAYS TO SHOP"
37730 Van Dyke, N. of 16 Mile, Sterling Heights
(810) 268-3800
at LuLu's lingerie
Fabulous collection of sleepwear
Sizes lx 2x 3x as well as regular sizes
From the world's foremost designers:
• NATORI
• JONES NY
• CAROL HOCHMAN
• FRENCH MAID
• SILKWEAR OF MONTREAL
GLuGLusGLinge
Maple at Lahser (Next to Blockbuster Video) • Bloo
Open 10-6 Daily • 248-644-4576
11/5
1999
c b
Bank — subject to Israeli security
controls.
The attack, which took place just
six days after Israel opened the route,
came as Israeli hard-liners are warning
the route will be used by terrorists to
carry out attacks against Israelis.
Palestinian officials reject such
claims.
"This is total nonsense," Palestinian
negotiator Saeb Erekat told JTA this
week. "The safe passage is the best
thing that has happened to the peace
process in a long time."
Erekat and other Palestinian offi-
cials discounted the fact that the
attack came near the Tarkumiya termi-
nal, adding they believe the assailants
came from within Israeli-controlled
territory. They say the attack could
have happened anywhere within the
Jewish state.
According to Israeli Arab Knesset
member Dr. Ahmed Tibi, the route
has "tremendous symbolic value."
Moreover, he added, "it renews the
territorial link between both parts of
Palestinian territory."
While Israelis debate the wisdom of
opening the route, it has also created
potential problems in Palestinian soci-
ety.
During the past week, thousands of
Palestinians — mostly young people,
many of whom were banned by Israel
from leaving Gaza — made their way
from Gaza to the West Bank, where
residents were not quite ready for the
influx of visitors.
Old tensions between the West
Bank and Gaza surfaced — tensions
between a traditional elite and the pre-
dominantly refugee population of
Gaza.
Palestinian society has always been
sharply divided — between religious
and secular, city residents and vil-
lagers, the educated and the less-edu-
cated.
There has also been a political
divide between the local leadership
and the PLO leaders who emerged in
the Palestinian diiSpora.
During the days of the Intifada, the
1987-1993 uprising against the Jewish
state, the two societies in Gaza and the
West Bank cooperated against their
common enemy.
But now, with the route's opening,
young Gazans are expressing a relief
that is not shared by all West Bankers.
"It's a smell of fresh air," said
Mohammad Ashraf, 22, of the Shati
refugee camp in Gaza, when he trav-
eled last week to the West Bank town
of Ramallah.
For Ashraf, it was no easy task to
reach Ramallah. He had to wait in
line with hundreds of Palestinians. His
papers were checked time and again.
His car was thoroughly scrutinized
by Israeli officials before he began the
90-minute trip to Tarkumiya in the
southern Judean Mountains.
Once there, he took a roundabout
route, bypassing Jerusalem, until he
reached Ramallah.
He had no specific goal in mind.
He said he just wanted to see
Ramallah and sigh with relief. He
planned to stay a day or two with dis-
tant relatives before returning home.
Unlike Ashraf, thousands of young
Palestinians are hoping to find work in
the West Bank — and remain there.
This could well spell problems.
Gazans, as a general rule, are less-
educated, worse off economically and
more religious than residents of the
West Bank. Unemployment in Gaza is
more than 17 percent, almost double
the rate in the West Bank.
Several mosques in the Ramallah
area are already reportedly filling up
with young Gazans who do not have a
place to stay the night. The reunion
between the two self-rule areas could
soon develop into a major social prob-
lem.
Economist Hisham Awartani of the
Palestinian Center for Research and
Studies in the West Bank town of
Nablus has warned that wages will
inevitably drop if Gaza job-seekers can
freely relocate.
Moreover, given the relative ease
with which they can move from the
West Bank into the Jewish state, they
may also compete for high-paying
construction jobs in Israel.
Bin Palestinian economists believe
the standard of living in Gaza will rise
more than the West Bank's will fall.
Just the same, they say, closer links
between the two economies will
demand greater sacrifices on the part
of West Bankers.
While Knesset Member Tibi is
enthusiastic about the route's opening,
he nonetheless believes that the
Palestinian Authority will have to
develop new policies to facilitate the
economic merger of the two areas.
But Erekat, who serves as interior
minister in the Palestinian Authority's
Cabinet, insists that the short-term
growing pains resulting from such a
merger will be nothing compared to
the gains of linking the two areas.
"If the West Bank can purchase
cheaper agricultural products from the
Gaza Strip and thus contribute to
employment in the Strip, what's bad
about it?" 7