WHO IS REALLY BESIEGING GAZA?
By Mudar Zahran
HAMAS REAPS OVER HALF A BILLION
DOLLARS A YEAR FROM TARIFFS ON THE EGYPT-GAZA TUNNEL TRADE
Apart from the presumed public relations gains to be amassed
by "sticking it to ISRAEL," according to a 2011 report Washington
Institute for Near East Policy, Hamas reaps over half a billion dollars a year
from tariffs on the EGYPT-Gaza tunnel trade. It is therefore in Hamas's best
interest to keep the blockade idea alive, in order to secure larger revenues
for its Gaza government, all the while demonizing ISRAEL and causing Gaza's
residents to suffer, thereby making them even more dependent on Hamas.
Islmail Haniyeh enjoying Israeli products |
A photo of the "Prime
Minister" of Hamas's government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, buying ISRAELI grapes in Gaza, with a boy
standing next to him enjoying a bag of ISRAELI chips has been circulating
online among Palestinians.
The photo is an example of the
hypocrisy of the senior Hamas leader, as his group and its sympathizers in the
West and in Muslim countries have been advocating a universal boycott of ISRAELI
products. The photo of Haniyeh buying ISRAELI grapes also ridicules those
across the world claiming that people in Gaza are starving to death under a
"terrifying" ISRAELI siege. An ISRAELI siege, in fact, might be
exactly what Hamas's leaders want to bring about, both to try to hurt ISRAEL
economically and at the same time to gain global political and financial
support for themselves while Gazans are suffering under Hamas's rule.
GENERAL PUBLIC IS HARDLY AWARE OF THE FACT THAT ISRAEL
PROVIDES WATER AND ELECTRICITY FREE OF CHARGE TO GAZA AND THE WEST BANKS!
Before Haniyeh's picture became an
internet sensation -- distributed by Palestinians over social websites such as
Facebook -- just this past August, former PA security chief Muhammad Dahlan
said that Gaza was "not under siege," and that its residents
were "not lacking anything." Dahlan was expelled from Fatah in 2011
following a dispute with PA president Mahmoud Abbas, a circumstance which
possibly gives him more freedom to speak his mind.
Dahlan is not alone in his
assessment. In July 2010, EGYPTIAN journalist Ashraf Abu Al-Houl wrote in Al-Ahram (EGYPT'S
most prominent newspaper) that "in actual terms" Gaza is not under
siege. He further noted that stores were "flowing with goods" at
"low prices." Abu Al-Houl went as far as detailing the thriving
entertainment and amusement parks industry in Gaza.
Gaza shopping mall |
Still, in the global media, the notion
of Gaza being under an "inhumane" ISRAELI siege is alive and well.
Weeks after Dahlan's statement, the United Nations released a report stating
that "the situation in the Palestinian enclave has reached a critical
point. If no action is taken, by 2020, Gaza will become uninhabitable" --
noting that ISRAEL is to blame for the conditions in Gaza.
Ironically, throughout all of the
alleged Israeli siege on Gaza, ISRAEL has consistently been providing Gazans
water and power supplies, which Israel threatened to cut in 2011 if Palestinian
Authority pursued reunification with Hamas -- a threat which ISRAEL never
carried out.
Moreover, numbers speak for themselves: in March 2012, the
same month when 300 Hamas rockets were fired from Gaza at ISRAELI towns, 3,653
truckloads of goods were delivered from ISRAEL to Gaza and 1,375 Gazan patients
and companions entered or passed through ISRAEL for medical treatments,
followed by another 1,364 in April, 2012.
In August 2012, the Hamas prime
minister's brother in law was allowed to enter ISRAEL for treatment in an ISRAELI
hospital.
This is the same Haniyeh who visited
TUNIS in 2011 by invitation from its Islamist-dominated parliament and told the
welcoming crowd, "We shall not relinquish Palestine," to which the
crowd chanted: "Killing Jews is A Duty".
ESTIMATED TUNNEL TRADE BETWEEN GAZA AND EGYPT PEAKS TO AROUND
$600-850 MILLION PER YEAR, WITH HAMAS TAKING A HEFTY CUT FROM THE TRADE
So, if ISRAEL has never stopped
humanitarian supplies to Gaza and does not enforce the alleged blockade of
humanitarian supplies on Gaza, why does Hamas insist on promoting the
blockade's myth and even provoking ISRAEL whenever possible by rocket attacks
such as the most recent ones?
To understand Hamas's motives, apart
from the presumed public relations gains to be amassed by "sticking it to ISRAEL,"
it might help to know that the Washington Institute for Near East Policy
released a report in 2011 stating that the estimated tunnel trade between Gaza
and EGYPT had "likely peaked at around $600-850 million per year,"
and noted that Hamas takes a hefty cut from the EGYPTIAN tunnel trade,
"imposing high 'customs' duties and a daily fee on local tunnel contractors."
According to the report, the
TUNNEL TRADE HAD BEEN DRAMATICALLY REDUCED SINCE JUNE 2010,
WHEN ISRAEL QUADRUPLED THE NUMBER OF TRUCKS PERMITTED TO BRING GOODS TO GAZA through legal terminals. It is therefore in Hamas's best
interest to keep the blockade alive to secure larger revenues for its Gaza
government, all the while demonizing ISRAEL and causing Gaza's residents to
suffer, thereby making them even more dependent on Hamas.
At the same time, Hamas manages to
get the world's sympathy in the name of the blockade, as well as the world's
cash: Qatar, for example, recently
allocated $400 million as aid money for Gaza. Of course, how decent Hamas will
be at handling those funds is anyone's guess.
It is Hamas, not ISRAEL, which is
besieging Gaza. Those who claim to be concerned about the Palestinians in Gaza
would actually do more good for these fine people if they stopped attacking ISRAEL
and instead switched their focus to addressing the true source of the Gazans'
poverty, suffering and oppression: HAMAS.
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