In Automomous Jericho, Palestinians Still Waiting for Jobs

By Sam Cahnman

In the Palestinian autonomous area of Jericho, a half-hour's ride from Jerusalem, signs of Palestinian nationhood are beginning to take hold in this dusty, sleepy town near the Jordan River. But, some 16 months after the Sept. 13, 1993 Yitzhak Rabin-Yasser Arafat handshake on the White House South Lawn, and a little more than half a year after the departure of Israeli troops, signs of the Israeli state still are very much in evidence.

On a bright sunny day in January this dichotomy was no better illustrated than by a visit to the local post office. All the Hebrew markings on the building had been replaced by signs in Arabic and English announcing that the building houses the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Postal and Communications Department for the Jericho Area. Inside, though, the only things Palestinian are the "Palestinian Authority" postage stamps on sale. Printed in multiple denominations of mils, or thousandths, of an unspecified currency, they are sold for Israeli shekels, and, according to the postal official behind the counter, will carry mail only to the autonomous areas of Jericho and Gaza.

Conveniently, the Palestinian post office also sells Israeli stamps and phone cards with magnetically embedded credit for use in Israeli public phones. A bank of such phones sits in the lobby, from which Jerusalem is still a local call—no need to dial a country code or even a city area code.

Scattered around this palm tree-lined, resort-like town, generally acknowledged as the world's oldest city, are offices of the various PNA ministries—agriculture, local government affairs, treasury, labor, welfare, antiquities and others, as well as police headquarters. The offices, though, do not convey an atmosphere of intense activity, perhaps because the bulk of the PNA's activities are conducted from Gaza.

Tacked to the walls of the labor ministry, housed a short walk from the town square in a decrepit building with seven other ministries, are safety posters left over from the Israelis, in Hebrew and Arabic. The most immaculate government establishment is the Local Government Affairs office in a neat, clean building away from the central business district. The building, which houses the office of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official Saeb Erekat, formerly served as a vocational school. The reception area to Erekat's office contains four shelves of neatly placed, numbered, ring binder files bearing such labels as "Palestinian-Israeli Meetings"; "Gaza-Jericho Agreement"; "Israeli Violations"; "Projects: Ramallah, Hebron, Nablus"; and "Job Applications."

Every car this reporter saw in Jericho still bore Israeli license plates. Hassan G. El-Hussein, the town's silver-haired, smiling mayor, says Palestinian license plates are coming, but will be phased in only as the individual Israeli plates expire.

Palestinian blue- and green-uniformed policemen were very visible in the central business district, but appeared relaxed and at ease. The blue-uniformed officers handle conventional police work, such as crime and traffic, and do not outwardly carry arms. The green-uniformed officers handle internal security, such as attacks on the PNA, and many carried visible military arms. No Palestinian police cars were apparent.

Although the ride from Jerusalem to Jericho costs less than $2 in a service (group) taxi, few tourists arrived on their own. Buses did bring tour groups to the various religious and archeological sites in the Jericho Area, but in the two days this reporter spent in Jericho, none appeared in the central business district. No Israelis were visible in town either, even though the Oslo Agreement gives them the right to travel the roads of the Jericho Area.

The central business district bustled with activity, as vendors displayed their brightly colored fruits and vegetables. Mahmud Barahamah, a 45-year-old unemployed tour guide, said that such commercial activity now lasts well into the evening, whereas under the Israelis, hardly anyone ventured out after 6 p.m.

Prominently displayed throughout the center of town are photographs of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Khalil Al-Wazir (Abu Jihad), Arafat's popular former military commander, who was assassinated in his Tunis apartment, allegedly by an Israeli hit squad, in 1988.

The residents of Jericho have mixed views on the current state of affairs, compared to the days under direct Israeli administration. Some say things are worse because most Palestinians now are barred from relatively well-paid jobs in Israel, and the pay is very low for whatever work there is in the Jericho Area. Others say things are better because the Israeli army is gone. Among the business community, one shopkeeper said taxes are lower and another, Mousa El-Hilu, said they are about the same. He complained that Jericho is like a big prison because residents have to go through an Israeli checkpoint to get out. A number of other residents complained of long delays at checkpoints outside of Jericho, and elsewhere on the West Bank. However, this reporter, riding in Arab taxis with Palestinian passengers, did not experience serious inconvenience upon two departures from Jericho into Israeli-occupied territory.

"Pleasure and happiness took over the people when the PLO took over Jericho," said PNA-appointed Mayor El-Hussein. "This lasted two months. After that, the question arose, 'what else?' Not one penny has come in from donor countries and people wonder what peace has done. This is the big challenge for the National Authority."

According to Mu'in Shreim at the PLO's U.N. Observer Mission in New York, some money now has been received from donor countries, although much less than the $700 million that had been promised to the PNA. He said that all objections to the PLO's accounting system were resolved at a December meeting of donor countries and the World Bank in Brussels.

Jericho Mayor El-Hussein, who presides over an appointed City Council with members from all Palestinian groups, including Hamas, said 600 people had applied for jobs with his city, but he couldn't hire anyone because he can hardly pay the people already working for the municipality.

The affable mayor left Jericho in 1967 to study law in Beirut and then worked for the PLO in Lebanon and Tunisia before returning to Jericho in August to assume his current post. As he was wrapping up his interview to move on to his next appointment with Palestinian engineers about public works projects, he concluded: "The big challenge now is to move forward in the peace process. The dilemma is that [Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin thinks from the security point of view. But you have to look at it from the political point of view."

How that point of view will be played out in day-to-day Palestinian-Israeli relations depends upon whom in Jericho you talk to.

"There has been too much killing between our people to live together right now, but maybe after a while," says shopkeeper El-Hilu. "I want to see my country clean (of Israelis)."

On the other hand Barahamah, the tour guide, took a more hospitable approach. "If the settlers follow our law, they are welcome. We need people to invest in this country. We don't want to kick them out," he said.

Sam Cahnman is a free-lance journalist and attorney based in Illinois. He was in Jericho, Israel and the occupied territories in January and writes frequently on the Middle East.