TOO BUSY TO HATE:

 It takes some time to accustom our ears to the loud, incessant soundtrack of voices and shouts. There are crowds of people and close to 180 market stalls, all of them loaded with the choicest fruits and vegetables. The new shopping center that opened just a few days ago has already become one of the most popular for the inhabitants of Jenin and for Arab citizens of Israel, particularly those from Wadi Ara.

The locals call the new center, which was built by the municipality, Al-Mujma. All the illegal market stalls that had operated in Jenin's market were moved here in an orderly fashion, and vendors who received licenses can sell their wares here. One vendor shouts, "Three for ten, three for ten" -- meaning three kilograms of cucumbers for ten shekels -- almost right in my ear. "Tomatoes are seven shekels per kilo," he adds, helpfully. At the other stalls, prices are lower still.

A young Palestinian man approaches us and asks me to write down his name. "Mohammed Za'eir," he says. "I am from the city of Jenin. I want to open a market stall but the municipality isn't letting me. Why did all the people here get permits? Because they get preferential treatment. All the people who bought from me know that I sell good merchandise, that I give customers respect. I have four children and I just want to feed them."

This is, perhaps, the story of the "new" Jenin summed up in a few lines. It is no longer the city that Israelis feared from the second intifada, and has not been for some time. It used to be known as "the capital of the suicide bombers," the most dangerous place in the West Bank, where the toughest battles of 2002's Operation Defensive Shield took place.

But no one here talks about the intifada or "the war with the Jews" anymore. Everybody talks about salaries and money. The armed men are gone and more and more shopping centers are being opened in an effort to attract the (Arab) Israeli customers who come to visit.

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