One might feel a little more sorry for the affected business owners if Palestinians themselves didn't declare their own strikes all the time - that affect these same businesses even more.
Twice in the past two weeks, Palestinians declared general strikes - not only in Nablus but throughout the entire West Bank - in reaction to Israel killing terrorists.
These strikes are declared every time Palestinian groups want them - and how it affects Palestinians themselves is not part of the equation.
It isn't as if these strikes bother Israelis at all. All they do is hurt the Palestinian economy.
So forgive me if I am not so sympathetic to articles blaming a loss of business in Nablus on Israel. There are general Palestinian strikes practically every month, sometimes multiple times a month, sometimes for a couple of municipalities but often throughout the West Bank. No Arabic articles talk about how they affect the Palestinian economy.
No shopkeepers are interviewed about whether they agree with the strikes or not. No economists are consulted to opine on whether a general strike twice a month drops the Palestinian GNP by 5 or 10%.
