Good News from the West Bank
Posted on: December 2, 2008

Patrick Martin enjoys lunch in Hebron.

Veteran Globe and Mail journalist Patick Martin recently returned to Jerusalem for another stint as the paper’s Mideast bureau chief.  He is also blogging about his experiences in the Mideast Notebook. 

Martin’s latest post, A Tale of Two Palestines,  contrasts conditions in Gaza, which are “deteriorating daily,” with “life in several of the Palestinian cities of the West Bank [which] seems to have improved. Returning to some favourite haunts after several years’ absence, one is struck by the liveliness and, dare I say, normality of many neighbourhoods.”

Read the whole post here »

Meanwhile, Ha’aretz reports on an expected upswing in tourism to Bethlehem. In “Bethlehem mayor: Christmas season will cap boom year for tourism,”  Reuters quotes Bethlehem’s mayor Victor Batarseh saying “It has been an excellent year”…and “forecasting 1.25 million visitors by the end of 2008 and noting a halving in local unemployment.”

Link to the story here »