Amira Hass in Haaretz writes about the kind of people one meets across Israel and the Jewish Diapora (“but the West Bank is thriving” types):
Israelis really love to hear how good things are in Ramallah. This is the conclusion from talks with the kind of Israelis who don’t demonstrate with Palestinians and face teargas, rubber-coated bullets and beatings by Israeli soldiers, and who don’t spend hours closely watching what goes on at military courts and checkpoints.
It’s amazing what Israelis who live 12 minutes from the checkpoints of Qalandiyah and al-Za’im know, even though they have never set foot there and have never seen the wall blocking the sunsets, the watchtowers and the barbed wire fences. They know about the cafes, restaurants, fancy houses and traffic circles. It’s very similar to their intimate knowledge of the underground tunnels below Rafah.
The thought process here is obvious: The Palestinians have money, even in the Gaza Strip. They shouldn’t complain about a humanitarian crisis. We can go on living normally 12 or 21 minutes away from them, teach at the university, go to concerts and exhibitions, travel abroad and have fun in malls. We’re all right.