The historic heart of the souk, pictured here, was given a major facelift in the late 1990s by an Israeli government fearful that the world’s media might see the discrimination against the Arab minority a little too clearly when the Pope visited for the Millennium in 2000. However, apart from a new pavement, and standardised green and beige shutter doors and awnings for the shops, little has improved for its residents. (February 2003).