Nablus

29 Dec

The name Happy Prison comes from a conversation I had with my friend Jihad, owner of the International Friends Guest House, while touring around his native city of Nablus. I was remarking to him that Nablus feels far more prosperous and self-contained than I had expected. This in marked contrast to the popular leftist notion of Palestine under siege and desperately underdeveloped. The city of Nablus is thriving, as any ancient city-state should be. The stone walled “Old City” is returning to life after occupation and periodic bombardment from April 2002 to 2008. Outside the Old City, the Valley floor is bustling with a new 10-story shopping mall and office complex, affluent homes, and countless mouth watering eateries including in my view the best thin crust pizza this side of the Bosporus.

There is a traditional elite and a burgeoning middle class, the extreme of which is exemplified by a palatial home perched high above (nearly at the level of the settlement checkpoints) the less ostentatious but also new-rich dwellings. The absentee owner of this “home” is a Nablusi native who has recently grown extremely rich as a US military contractor in Iraq and maintains similar edifices throughout the Gulf Region, so I was told. In general the city of Nablus is ebulliently comfortable. And then there are the refugee camps, which make up an irreconcilable world apart, each with an approximate population of 30,000. They appear similar to a typical Pakistani slum with garbage scattered about, unaccompanied young children and waste water running through the streets. The only difference I could see from my very brief tour is that the consequences of recent warfare (the second Intifada and its subsequent IDF response “Operation Defensive Shield”) are evident everywhere. The second story walls of nearly every house on main street are simultaneously bullet scarred and plastered with the photoshopped posters of so-called martyrs and their iconic machine guns. The picture below labeled ‘iron bars’ is where my tour guide, head of a local peace education NGO, calmly pointed out to us his nephew, age 14 years old, was killed by IDF gunfire during a stone throwing protest in late 2002.

Then below all the postmodern prosperity and poverty is pure pristine water and the largest contiguous aquifer in the West Bank. Nablus is full of ancient wells. The foremost of these is none other than Jacob’s, a 300-foot stone shaft now below the sanctum of an ornate Ottoman era Greek Orthodox Church called St Photina. The location of the Church/well is conspicuous. It is adjacent to the Askar refugee camp. Both the Camp and the Church are directly below (in clear line of fire) three fortified IDF positions on the surrounding hillsides. Behind the fortifications are Israeli settlements. Every Saturday morning, the ultra orthodox residents of the settlements walk down to visit the Well. They travel with armed military accompaniment. The visit is purely symbolic. The fortified positions and settlements are not. Such is the paradox of the happy prison. Nablus is marginally content within, but the locus of power is without.

I end with one very basic factoid. There are three types of occupied territories:

Area A, Palestinian control=7% of the West Bank

Area B, mixed Palestinian and Israeli control=23% of the West Bank

Area C, Israeli control=70%, which begs the question why even call them settlements?

: The entry way to Askar

: the children

: another street scene

: street scene from Askar

: pockmarks and posters

: the iron bars

: Jacob’s well/church with IDF position in background

: this shot is taken from the vantage point of the IDF position, only slightly higher on the same ridge. From here it is easy to imagine indiscriminate firing on the Camp below. Zoom in and you can also see the Church on the left with the circular orange dome.