While one part of the Palestinian territories faces the fiercest Israeli onslaught in years, there is little to remind people in the other part of the war except for news reports, requests for blood donations and flags flying at half-staff. Even pro-Gaza demonstrations have been suppressed by Palestinian police in the West Bank, sometimes violently. Just 25 miles (40 kilometers) of Israeli territory separates the West Bank and Gaza, and Palestinians consider themselves one people and share the desire for a state. But decades of geographic separation and a political schism between Hamas rulers of Gaza and the moderate Fatah faction that runs the West Bank are driving them toward different fates and leaving them increasingly isolated from each other. “It's as if Gaza has become another country,” said university student Mohammed Akram, 19, slightly embarrassed. Next to a sign bearing pictures of injured Gazans, he was listening to a pop song on his cell phone. Around him, other students shuffled to class, toting books and sending text messages. “Some people go out and protest, but most of us go to the university and live our normal lives,” said 19-year-old Aria Darwish, sitting under an olive tree and tapping on her laptop. “We don't really feel it.” Nearby, a flag flew at half-staff and a sign asked students to donate blood. In the West Bank town of Ramallah, TVs in most shops remained fixed on Al-Jazeera or other Arabic-language satellite channels, and some radio stations air frequent Gaza reports, substituting nationalistic anthems for the usual fare of romantic pop songs. But few in the West Bank have been able to travel to Gaza in the last decade, and many interviewed said they don't know anyone there. Most follow the news closely, however, and quickly express their solidarity with Gazans in what they see as another example of Israeli aggression against their people. Most cities in the West Bank experienced similar fights with Israel during the second Palestinian uprising, which started in 2000, and some expressed relief that they had been spared this time. Other Palestinians have found in the Gaza war a common enemy to make them forget - at least temporarily - their own political divisions between Fatah and Hamas. “You watch TV and see an entire family killed by a missile,” said Hossam Salim, 31. “They're not militants or Hamas or anything.” Salim sat with friends in the Nazareth Restaurant in central Ramallah. All said they had fought in militias loyal to Abbas' Fatah movement, two said they had lost siblings, and all disliked Hamas. “If this much of my finger was Hamas, I'd chop it off,” said Hassan Juma, 35. But he said he supported them against the Israelis in Gaza. Other West Bank residents have a more personal stake. Taysir Barakat, owner of Ramallah's Ziryab restaurant, was born in Gaza's Jebaliya refugee camp and recalls many of Gaza's streets from his childhood. He still has five siblings and many other relatives in Gaza. Barakat spends much of the day on the phone. “The distance makes it more painful that we are living safe, good lives here while we know what it's like there,” he said.
