Ramallah Celebrates While Gaza Suffers: The Divided Reality of Palestine

Watan-In a scene more brutal than fiction, symbolizing one of the deepest moments of separation, both popular and moral, between the West Bank and Gaza, Ramallah recently celebrated the opening of the “Icon Mall,” one of the most luxurious shopping centers in Palestinian territories. The event was marked by dancing, music, and official attendance, while Gaza was dying of hunger and being wiped out under bombings.

Here in Ramallah, ululations are heard, and lights are raised in front of camera lenses. And there, just an hour and a half away, hospitals are being bombed, the wounded are left without treatment, and bodies are buried under rubble. Over 550 days of massacres, thousands of martyrs, children dying of hunger, and live-streamed atrocities.

While the Baptist Arab Hospital was bombed again, and the entry of relief trucks into the Strip remained blocked, the music of the folk dance echoed, and officials and businessmen celebrated the opening of a luxury mall, which some mockingly referred to as the “Palestinian Shame Mall.”

It seemed as if the cause was no longer about a nation, but about geography. As if Gaza was not part of Palestine, but a burden to be denied, or at least ignored.

Meanwhile, in the surroundings of Ramallah, Israeli forces continued to raid refugee camps, chasing children and arresting the elderly, while settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque and threatened to slaughter sacrificial animals.

But none of this seemed enough to stop the mall opening event. Real estate is a priority, investment is supreme, and trade is above blood.

Has the country truly divided? Has Palestine become two halves? One half struggles and the other dances? One half is bombed and the other celebrates?

Thus, the tragedy was reduced. Gaza is being annihilated… and dying alone. Along with it, all values die unless this shame is lifted.