The Barkan Industrial Park in the so-called "West Bank" is a reminder of the coexistence that existed between Israelis and Palestinians prior to the current peace process, and continues to exist in isolated areas in spite of that same peace process.
For that reason, the Palestinian terrorist groups that would rather see Israel eliminated than peacefully coexist with it are vehemently opposed to the success of places like this.
The businesses operated at the Barkan Industrial Park employ a total of around 7,000 workers, half of them Israeli Jews and the other half Palestinian Arabs.
And all these workers get along just fine, because they know that their economic well-being relies on doing so.
But the peace was shattered on Sunday morning when a 23-year-old Palestinian Arab man entered one of the local factories and opened fire on the workers there.
Two people were killed and another wounded. The terrorist managed to flee the scene, but was recorded by security cameras. Israeli security forces immediately launched a massive manhunt throughout the region of Samaria.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two of the aforementioned groups opposed to peace with Israel, celebrated the deadly shooting.
"The Hamas movement and the Palestinian people everywhere praise the heroic operation near the Ariel settlement," read a statement released by the group. "We applaud this heroic operation and affirm that it comes as a natural response to the Israeli occupation’s crimes at the expense of the Palestinian people."
The Islamic Jihad added:
"We praise this martyrdom operation and affirm that settlements are a legitimate target for resistance fighters and revolutionaries. We call on our proud people in Jerusalem, the West Bank and elsewhere to rise up in the face of settlement terrorism until the West Bank is liberated from settlements and settlers."
Neither group bothered to acknowledge that the targeted "settlement" employs thousands of Palestinian Arabs who would otherwise likely be victims of the rampant unemployment that characterizes life under the Palestinian Authority.
PHOTO: Israeli security forces at the scene of a shooting attack at the Barkan industrial zone on October 7, 2018. (Flash90)
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