Ramallah, with a population of 60,000, is the cultural and political center for Palestinians in the West Bank. About eight miles from Jerusalem, it is the seat of the Palestinian Authority, which was founded by Yassir Arafat and is currently led by Mahmoud Abbas. Ramallah once had a large Christian population, and still has a much larger proportion of Christians than Bethlehem or Nazareth, which are overwhelmingly Muslim. The city was occupied by Israeli forces during the Second Intifada in 2000, but Israelis have withdrawn from Ramallah, and it is a prospering and safe West Bank city.
A few days ago, we visited Ramallah for the first time. As recently as five years ago, this would have been unthinkable to us, partly because we believed it was dangerous and partly because Ramallah was so closely associated with the political leadership of Yassir Arafat. On our most recent visit to Israeli in 2006, when we were lost trying to find our way to the Christian village of Taybeh in a car with an Israeli license plate, we accidentally came to the outskirts of Ramallah. When we realized it, we high-tailed it out of there as inconspicuously as possible.
We didn’t plan to go to Ramallah, but our taxi driver, who we liked and trusted, on our visit to Taybeh offered to show us the Qalandiya Refugee Camp, where he was born and is now raising his family of five children. So, the next week we went.
It was a pleasant and eye-opening trip. We felt safe and were surprised at how prosperous and clean the city is. We even saw Yassir Arafat’s tomb. The trip confirmed our belief, which Art held from the many magazines and journals he reads, that the situation in the West Bank is improving. It is difficult for people who live there to admit this, but for the time being, it seems almost undeniable. This view was confirmed this week in an article by Thomas Friedman, a journalist we respect, in the International Herald Tribune. The problems are still enormous, but we praise God for any signs of progress.
