The Globe and Mail

As the siege of Gaza continues with living conditions in the Strip deteriorating daily, life in several of the Palestinian cities of the West Bank 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.

In Ramallah, site of the Palestinian National Authority, business booms and street life is vibrant. Housing construction, which enjoyed a big boom in the 90s when peace seemed imminent, only to collapse with the advent of the 2000 intifada, appears back in business. Cafe life, especially in the more Christian districts, has regained some of the European-style the city was famous for prior to the 1987 intifada. Several boutique hotels do a fine trade and a mighty Movenpick hotel (after several false starts) is due to open in the new year.

Because of the indignities and delays incurred when travelling through the Israeli security barrier on the road to Jerusalem, more and more Ramallah residents are foregoing the journey. Indeed, many shops in Ramallah are superior to anything found in Arab east Jerusalem, so a large number of Jerusalemites are actually going to Ramallah to shop.

In another Palestinian city, Hebron, living conditions also are surprisingly healthy, at least for the 80 per cent of Palestinians fortunate enough to live in area H1. That is the area under complete Palestinian control. Hebron always has been known as the most industrious, and the most religious, of the West Bank communities. The city has wasted little time in donning its old kind of prosperity. Shops flourish, people are working, and the roads are remarkably efficient. There even are traffic lights, carefully obeyed, in neighbourhoods where chaos reigned supreme just a few years ago.

Hebron also was famous for the grilled chicken restaurants that line the main street, and some of the best have now moved to luxurious new premises. At lunch this past week with a colleague, we ate extremely well and, as befits a town that boasts of its religiosity (in fact the head of the Islamic council was having lunch three tables away from us) we were able to enjoy "Islamic" alcohol-free beer with the meal. Brewed in the Netherlands, and called Bavaria, it was surprisingly tasty. The only thing odd about it was that it was served in the bottle, a la soda pop, with a straw! (see picture)

Of course, the 20,000 Hebronites in area H2, like the residents of Nablus, a Palestinian community to the north of Ramallah, are not enjoying the good life. This part of Hebron still is under strict Israeli occupation in which an estimated 800 Israeli settlers live under the protection of about 500 soldiers. This controversial settlement, adjacent to the tomb of Abraham, the patriarch of all three monotheistic faiths, continues to spread at the expense of neighbouring Palestinian homes and businesses. The old Arab market that thrived just a few years ago is closed down, and many of the remaining residents above the shuttered stores live behind caged windows and balconies. the streets are deserted except for Israeli military patrols and the occasional settler,

Those Palestinians whose homes lie between Abraham's tomb and the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of Hebron are suffering a new indignity with the apparent purchase of one of their neighbourhood's commercial-residential buildings by a Jewish American businessman, appropriately named Abraham. Mr. Abraham put up almost a million dollars (U.S.) to acquire the three-storey building through a series of middlemen; all for the benefit of the settlers who seek to connect their two Hebron communities by acquiring such properties in between.

For now, and over the strenuous objections of the settlers, an Israeli court has ordered the Israeli occupants to vacate the premises until a court case to determine ownership is heard. But if this property follows the pattern of most of the other properties in the area acquired by Israeli settlers, various orders to vacate will ultimately be followed by an acceptance of their settlement status. That's how the tiny Jewish community re-established in the wake of the 1967 war spread to the size it is today.