May. 6, 2021 1:08 PM
The impressive modern campus of Jenin’s Arab American University could be anywhere in the world. The first private Palestinian university in the West Bank was inaugurated on September 28, 2000 – the same day that Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount, triggering the second intifada – but it was eerily quiet on a recent visit.
Mohammed Sbehat is born and bred in Jenin. Early last year, he put his savings from working in construction in Israel into a new restaurant, Al Faris, that caters to the students. “Business was very good, but then I had to close for eight months,” he recounts. “Now only 15 percent of the students are here.”