Friday 29 June 2007

Myths

Myths and Reality

1. If you are a woman and go outside with your hair wet, it means that you just had sex. True or False?
2. It is not okay to show your stomach even if you are a Christian Arab.
3. It is okay to look into the eyes of another man (not your husband) when having a conversation.
4. It is not okay to have a cup of coffee, not work related, with another man.
5. There are 300 Israel manned checkpoints in the West Bank.
6. Israel has been reducing the amount of checkpoints since the building of the wall.
7. The Israeli security wall is a good thing because it will allow the Palestinians to move around the West Bank easier.
8. The wall is a total of 650 km (400 miles) inside of the West Bank.
9. In some places the wall is 10 kms high but mostly the wall is a fence.
10. The wall costs 1 US million per/ km.






Answers:

1. False, this myth has been said for years among the foreigners, but this perception is not true.
2. True, It is not okay to show your stomach even if you are a Christian Arab, it is not modest enough.
3. True, if you look at a man in the eyes, not work related, then he will have the idea that you are trying to pick up on him. For a woman to pick up on a man is “haram”. (Not good)
4. True, It is not looked upon socially as proper to go unescorted for coffee alone with a man, no matter how old the woman is. A Palestinian man would never ask a Palestinian woman for coffee unescorted. Of course, some of the university students have coffee together, but not many.
5. False, there are 528 checkpoints in the West Bank.
6. False, the number of checkpoints is up 40% from 2005 through Dec. 10, 2006, from 376 in August 2005. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/773392.html (Haaretz Israeli newspaper)
7. False, UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), says "The West Bank, for example, is effectively being chopped up into three big areas... and there are pockets within those areas where people also can't move."
8. True
9. False, some areas of the wall are 8 m high (25 feet) made of pure concrete and fortified with armed watchtowers, other areas are part/fence/concrete or razor wire and/or electric fencing which includes a “buffer zone” with trenches and cameras.
10. False, the cost of the wall is 2.8 million USD per km.

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