When Israel and Palestinians Were at Peace
Israel Says Deadly Raid on West Bank City Is Over
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/05/world/middleeast/israel-withdraws-jenin-west-bank.html
Architect, New York
In the 1990s I surveyed all of Israel for potential sites for housing of Russian Jewish immigrants (Ariel Sharon was Housing Minister who okayed my tour). This was used to attact investors.
Then there was plenty of open land occupied by widely spaced kibbutzim and Bedouin camps, at both where I was welcomed with friendly accounts of prospects for housing sites, what to do about infrastructure, construction, cooperation, government interaction.
While there were military installations here and there, most were at borders and in major cities. At the Egyptian border I spoke and joked with that nation's soliders. Elsewhere I as buzzed by a low flying Israeli jet which blasted the air with sound but no ammo.
New construction was underway all around the nation, mostly at city edges, and workers appeared to be mostly Palestinian, and gangs of them waited at intersections to be hired for daily jobs. I picked up several who were hitchhiking but we could only gesture signals lacking a common language.
Also picked up Israeli soldiers hitchhiking in uniform with weapons. Cracked jokes and swapped tales of military nuttiness.
Saw many Israeli civilians open-carrying pistols but none of the Palestinians were armed, at least not openly.
To wrap up, Israels and Palestinians were peaceful then. Only time I was harassed was at the airport when I was heading to Cairo, the guards were hostile to an American as if the enemy. So was Sharon.