Meeting With the Mayor of Tulkarm

Today at noon we were escorted by Abdulkarim Sadi, who is a field researcher and a contact for us in Tulkarm, to the office of the Mayor of Tulkarm.  His name is Mahmoud al-Jallad and he has been the mayor of Tulkarm for 1 year. 

As is the custom when meeting with public officials, we first met with an assistant.  Turkish coffee was served to us.  About 15 minutes later we were escorted into a much larger and extravagant space to meet with the major.  The meeting was held around a large beautiful desk with 12 elegant and comfortable leather office chairs.  We were first served some more Turkish coffee.  As we were introducing ourselves to the Mayor we were also each served a plate load of fruit.

Abdulkarim Sadi & the rest of our team

On each plate was a banana, a persimmons, an apple, a pear and a cucumber.  A blunt knife is also provided.  Then a container of mango juice was also given to each of us followed by a cup of tea.

Mr. Jallad is a very personable gentleman who spoke to us in English.  He also spoke to Sadi in Arabic and Sadi would translate what he said to us.  He said:  “I am very proud of this area.  I do what I do for the good of the people and you are most welcome here.”  He explained that he had an economic background and has been the mayor for about 1 year.  He outlined a plan to improve the economy of Tulkarm.  The plan also includes the building of a hotel/ restaurant complex in the downtown area.  This would be the first of it’s kind and he said they are about 7 months away from completion of the project.  He said they hope to attract more tourists to this area and by having accomodations for them it would be desirable to spend a few days in the area.  They also plan to employ local people for constructing and operating the facility.  Another projected plan is to attracted more small business owners into the Tulkarm area.  The mayor also described a new sewage disposal project sponsored by a German company to offset sewage that is coming from Nablus.