FEATURE-West Bank trade hub feels checkpoint squeeze
By Mohammed Assadi , Reuters, 05 Aug 2007
Home to about 365,000 Palestinians, Nablus and the surrounding villages have been famed as a centre for trade since Greco-Roman times.Before Israel ringed Nablus with checkpoints in 2002 after the start of the Palestinian uprising, the city was the West Bank’s economic heart.
Now about 25,000 Palestinians struggle to cross Hiwwara and other checkpoints around the city each day. On a slow day, the lucky ones can make it through the long lines and Israeli security checks within minutes. But it can take hours and those who don’t have the right permit get turned back. “We are being suffocated here by these checkpoints,” Sarrawi said inside his older Nablus shop. He said the new branch serves as “the lungs” to allow his 36-year-old business selling Mercedes-Benz spare parts to survive: “We were forced to go out of Nablus so that we could breathe.”