Next time you feel tempted to jump on the bandwagon and start bashing Israel for its 'poor' treatment of Palestinians, consider the following facts:
Unequal education and employment for Palestinians: Arab states vs. Israel
In Arab Lebanon, Arab Palestinians do not have social and civil rights, and have a very limited access to the government's public health or educational facilities and no access to public social services. Palestinians are prohibited by law from working in more than 70 trades and professions.
Under Israeli rule, Arab Palestinian universities in East-Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza Strip (all founded after 1967 when Israel took over these territories from Arab Jordan and Arab Egypt):
Al Azhar University of Gaza
Al-Quds University (6 campuses in Jerusalem and West Bank)
Arab American University of Jenin
Bethlehem University of Bethlehem
Birzeit University of Birzeit
Hebron University of Hebron
Ibrahimieh Community College of Jerusalem
Islamic University of Gaza
Palestine Polytechnic Institute
An-Najah National University of Nablus official website: "In 1977 it became An-Najah National University with Faculties of Arts and Science. In 1978 An-Najah National University joined the Association of Arab Universities as a full member. The university grew and advanced from this point forward constructing auditoriums, a library and a student center until it was declared a "closed military area" by the Israeli authorities in 1988. It was reopened in 1991 and has been fully functioning since. It has 10 Undergraduate Faculties, 30 Masters, and one Ph.D program. The university has also added nine professional and technical centers, such as the Center for Water and Environmental Studies and the Center for Urban and Regional Planning. An-Najah National University continues to advance and develop and offer the highest level of secondary education in the West Bank. The foundation has already been laid for its new campus, which will house the School of Medicine, a Teaching Hospital and its existing Science and Technical Faculties, and An-Najah hopes to expand to hold more than 10,000 students by the new millenium.� You got it? From 1948-1967, under the occupation of the Arab Jordanian brothers, Nablus got no university. But since 1977, under Israeli rule, Nablus not only got their first university but �the university grew and advanced�. Needless to say, while tens of thousands of Arabs study at Israeli universities, no Jew can safely enter Nablus.
True human development of the Palestinians and the other Arabs
The "wretched" Palestinians in the Israeli "Occupied Palestinian Territories" have higher Human Development Index (HDI = 0.731) than the 22 Arab states average (0.662) and than the average (0.707) of all neighboring Arab states Egypt (0.648), Jordan (0.743), Syria (0.648) and Lebanon (0.752) and only a bit lower than oilrich Saudi Arabia (0.769). HDI source: United Nations Human Development Report 2003
Unequal names by which neighborhoods in Palestinian towns are called
"Wretched" Palestinian "refugee camps" in "occupied" West Bank and Gaza Strip are in fact neighborhoods of above average Arab towns, near Palestinian universities and compounds of the Palestinian rich and famous.
For example, Jenin (West Bank) consists of stone and concrete buildings, with schools, private university, chamber of commerce and industry, jewelry shops, CD shops, computer shops, sweet shops, travel agencies, restaurants, lawyers offices, engineering offices, banks, mosques, insurance agents, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, sports clubs, taxis, traffic jams and everything else you expect in a community.
Unequal UN mandates for refugees in the world: Palestinians vs. all others
20th century: 135 million refugees, less than 0.5% were Arab Palestinians
Unequal health in the Middle East: Palestinians and the other Arabs
Palestinians have higher population growth, life expectancy, fertility rate and lower infant mortality than the Middle East average and than all the neighboring Arab states Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
http://www.hasbara.us/jewish_and_arab_palestinian_refugees.html
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