EAST JERUSALEM — Some 50 years after his father bought a shop in Jerusalem, Farag Ibrahim Abdul Rahman is trying to maintain the antiques store, although very few customers come in these days.

Abdul Rahman, who was only 5 years old when his father bought the shop in the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City, took over 30 years ago. Things have changed a lot in that time — especially in the past two months.

“The economic conditions in the city of Jerusalem have drastically changed. It all began in 2000 when the [Israeli-West Bank] barrier was built and the residents of the West Bank were banned from entering [the city]. But the market has been dead since October, when the occupation forces started carrying out random shootings, killings and arrests under the pretext of preventing young men from carrying out attacks,” Abdul Rahman told Al-Monitor.

During an interview with Al-Monitor, Abdul Rahman excused himself to welcome customers into his shop. They were a group of tourists from Italy and it was after 2 p.m. “Those are the first to enter the shop today,” Abdul Rahman noted.