Gaza's Collapsing Economy

October 16, 2007 12:10 PM

By SIMON MCGREGOR-WOOD

I arrived at the Erez Crossing into Gaza at 1030 in the morning. It was very quiet. After passport control, an Israeli security guard had to unlock the door leading to the concrete lined passage that takes you into the Gaza Strip. I was the first in.

As he unlocked the door, he peered carefully through a narrow crack, as if someone might be lurking on the other side…..slightly unnerving.

All was well and I walked the several hundred yards across a no-man’s land of rubble towards what used to be the Palestinian passport checkpoint. That’s gone now, and the area around it razed to the ground.

I was in Gaza to meet a Palestinian businessman, Mohammed Abu Dan. He owns a factory making clothes for the Israeli market. But his factory and his 250 workers don’t make anything at the moment.

Ever since Hamas took control of Gaza in June his sewing machines have fallen silent. The borders between Gaza and Israel are closed. Nothing but essential food and medical supplies are allowed in. Gaza’s economy is collapsing and everyone is beginning to feel the squeeze.

Mr Abu Dan showed me around his empty workshops. In the storage room, hundreds of already made pairs of jeans….they should have been sent to Israel months ago. Almost $250,000 worth of merchandise trapped by a political situation he can do nothing about.

“I blame the politicians, he says, both sides Israeli and Palestinian. I am a businessman trying to make a living for myself and my workers, that’s all.”

Abu Dan has been doing business with Israelis for decades. He showed me his travel permit. It normally allows him to travel into Israel to meet his Israeli contacts. When he last tried the Israelis would not let him pass through the checkpoint. He, like his clothing, is trapped in Gaza.

October 16, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

It's Almost Over...

June 14, 2007 7:31 AM

By SIMON MCGREGOR-WOOD

It’s almost over. Hamas gunmen have taken over one of Fatah’s last remaining strongholds, the Preventive Security Building in Gaza City.

Members of the Hamas military wing now control most of the Gaza Strip. There are checkpoints on every corner, and fighters in every tall building.

Fatah loyalists are hunkered down in their last few outposts, some are fleeing to Egypt and some are reportedly calling on Israel to help them get out.

All crossing points from Israel into the Gaza Strip are shut today. The men who run them on the Palestinian side, all from Fatah, have melted away.

And so just a few days after Hamas launched its takeover of power in Gaza, the job is almost done.

In the West Bank, Fatah still the stronger of the two, is nervous. Fatah gunmen have been rounding up Hamas political figures, hoping to keep the upper hand.

In Ramallah President Mahmoud Abbas is due to make an announcement later today. He is under pressure to disband the National Unity Government and declare emergency rule. It may be too late for that in Gaza.

In Israel they view the situation in Gaza with dismay. Newspaper headlines announce the arrival of Hamastan. Populist right wing politicians and commentators are popping up to say “we told you so”, and some are now talking about the three state solution: Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

It is difficult to see how Israel will be persuaded to deal with Gaza exclusively in the grip of Hamas. But the two lands are deeply connected, Israel supplies power and water to Gaza, and it controls its food and medical supplies.

Some people in Gaza are saying this had to happen. One side had to come out on top. The two groups couldn’t work together. Months of fighting proved that. Now that Hamas is in charge, some say, there will at last be order on the streets.

June 14, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Decisive Battle in Gaza?

June 13, 2007 7:46 AM

By SIMON MCGREGOR-WOOD

Hamas is on the brink of taking over the Gaza Strip. It’s new armed wing, the so-called “Executive Force” only numbers several thousand but it is well trained, highly motivated and most importantly, well armed.

The fighting has escalated. Before, it was all about targeting military leaders from the other side, Fatah. But the latest round has seen a change. This time Hamas is going for strategic targets. They have attacked and in most cases taken security compounds and buildings previously part of Fatah’s infrastructure in Gaza.

For the last 15 years, Fatah controlled the security forces throughout the Palestinain territories. For the first time that is being challenged by Hamas.

On Tuesday several hundred Hamas gunmen seized a vital security base in the north of Gaza. It overlooks the main north south road that runs the length of The Strip. Over 20 were killed in the fighting. The compound was bombarded by mortars and rockets before the beleaguered defenders surrendered. The victory gives Hamas effective territorial control of all northern Gaza.

President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Hamas of launching a coup. This may not be entirely accurate as the group is still the dominant partner in the National Unity Government and won last year’s election. But there is no doubt that Hamas is making a concerted effort to dominate Gaza for the first time.

Ceasefires have come and gone. But the fighting has always restarted. The underlying issue is who controls the security forces. Until now senior Fatah commanders have refused to cede power to Hamas. This lies at the heart of the present conflict.

This may be the decisive battle for Gaza. In the West Bank Fatah remains the stronger faction with Hamas on the run from the Israelis. A victory in Gaza for Hamas might create two very separate Palestinian areas. Some Israelis warn of the arrival of Hamastan in Gaza, a territory controlled by political Islam and in conflict with Israel.

June 13, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 04, 2007 3:55 PM

By SIMON MCGREGOR-WOOD

Photographer David Rubinger is now 83. He still carries his camera and still takes photos.

40 years ago he was on the frontline with Israeli troops during the 6 Day War. We sat down in the shadow of the Old City of Jerusalem to talk about those tumultuous days.

For the three weeks before the fighting started David Rubinger was stationed with Israeli troops in the Negev desert facing off against 100,000 heavily armed Egyptians. He remembers well the feeling of fear: “In the three weeks before the war there was a doomsday feeling in Israel.”

The confidence of Israel’s military leaders was not felt by the civilian population. Everywhere people expected mass casualties. Outside Tel Aviv the national soccer stadium was prepared as a mass cemetery with enough space for 40,000 bodies.

On June 5th 1967 David Rubinger was attached to an armored column which pushed into Gaza. The Israelis scored a dramatic success pushing the Egyptians back into the Sinai Peninsula.

On the 7th June he began to hear rumors about dramatic events in Jerusalem.

“I drove back to Jerusalem, arrived at 6 o’clock in the morning” he said “then made my way on foot. I remember I entered through the Lion’s Gate and made my way with the troops.”

Israeli paratroopers overwhelmed the Jordanian army which controlled Jerusalem and The West Bank. By the end of the day Israeli paratroopers took control of the Old City and the Holy places, including the Wailing Wall, sacred to Jews and out of reach for years.

It was here that David Rubinger took his most famous photo of the war, three young paratroopers standing in front of the Wailing Wall.

“These three guys at a given moment just stopped there”, he recalls, “and I got three frames of them. I didn’t think much of it because about 10 minutes later the chief rabbi of the army arrived with a Tora scroll and a ram’s horn, wow! What a picture!”

But it was the shot of the three paratroopers that caught the public’s imagination and it became the symbolic picture of Israel’s stunning success.

David Rubinger doesn’t mind although he says he has had to fight countless court cases over the ownership of the picture, and only now has full commercial control of how it is used.

40 years later he has mixed feelings about what has happened to Israel following the 6 Day War. He blames both Israel and Palestinians for missing opportunities for peace but regrets Israel’s decision to build Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories. He quotes Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion regarding Israel’s occupation:

“Get out of there, we shall not be able to swallow it, it will choke” he says, “well it is choking us, it is choking us because in my opinion I feel the Occupation has harmed us much more then the Palestinians. The Arabs are not getting weaker, in moral terms, in character terms, we are getting weaker.”

David Rubinger is still full of youthful energy and his memories of those dramatic days remain vividly in his mind. For the week of anniversary events he has been invited to Thailand for an exhibition of his work. A man who witnessed one of this region’s most important events is still traveling the globe with his photos and his memories.

June 4, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Gaza Fighting

May 16, 2007 4:47 PM

By SIMON MCGREGOR-WOOD

Deadly fighting between rival Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip continued throughout the day.

It began with Hamas militants launching an audacious attack on the home of a senior Fatah security chief, Rashid Abu Shbak. At least five of his bodyguards were killed in the ensuing shoot out. Abu Shbak was not at home at the time.

Five Hamas gunmen were then killed in a botched ambush by their own side. The five had been detained by Fatah gunmen and were being transported in a vehicle which was then attacked.

Dozens of Palestinian gunmen have been killed in factional fighting that started over the weekend. It is the worst outbreak since the Palestinian National Unity Government was formed in February. One of the new government’s objectives was to bring law and order back to the streets of Gaza, an objective that now seems beyond its capabilities.

Later in the day the Israeli Airforce struck a target in the south of Gaza which it claimed was a base for Hamas fighters. Hamas has resumed its rocket attacks on Israeli communities neighboring Gaza in recent days. Several rockets have landed in the town of Sderot resulting in Israeli injuries. The airstrike appears to be retaliation for the rocket fire.

The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is under growing political pressure to tackle the continuing problem of Palestinian rocket attacks. So far he has resisted calls for a full scale invasion of the Gaza Strip fearing Israeli military casualties.

Meanwhile in Gaza, the ceasefires put together by local political leaders are broken as quickly as they are made. There seems no end to the current bloodletting and many fear a slide into full scale civil conflict.

Each violent attack provokes revenge, and continues a bitter cycle of killing. The fighting is not only factional but is complicated by clan and family allegiances. The death of a clan member imposes a responsibility for revenge, making it difficult to halt the gun battles.

Some analysts explain Hamas’s latest round of rocket attacks as an attempt to draw the Israelis into a ground offensive and thereby unite the Palestinians against their common enemy.

So far the Israelis seem reluctant to grant them that wish.

May 16, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Protests Planned Against Olmert

May 03, 2007 9:48 AM

By SIMON MCGREGOR-WOOD

On Thursday night thousands of Israelis are expected to demonstrate in Rabin Square in the heart of Tel Aviv.

The demonstration is advertised as a popular message to the country’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. The message is that he should resign for his personal failure of leadership during last summer’s war in Lebanon. But those gathering tonight represent a broad political spectrum united by their growing mistrust of Israel’s political and military elite.

Earlier this week a report commissioned by his own government leveled harsh words of criticism against the already embattled prime minister. It accused him of rushing into full scale war without proper planning and consultation. The war failed in both of its goals, the return of two kidnapped Israeli soldiers and the destruction of Hizbollah’s military threat.

The Israeli public had already made up its mind that Ehud Olmert and his defense team were responsible for these failures, and his personal popularity has nose dived ever since.

The report’s publication has unleashed a tidal wave of anger, both within political circles and from tonight, on the streets. Olmert finds himself challenged by political allies as well as enemies, all calling for his immediate resignation. He has vowed to stay on and implement the recommendations of the report.

But there is a real sense here that tonight’s demonstration will be more than just a call for Olmert’s head. The Israeli public is sick and tired of its politicians. In the last year there has been a relentless succession of scandals and allegations of corruption.

Ehud Olmert himelf is under several investigations questioning his personal business practices as well as potential abuse of power while serving as a minister in a previous government. The country’s president Moshe Katsav has had to step down in the light of rape allegations. The finance minister was forced out amid accusations he stole money. The justice minister was ejected from his post following conviction for forcing a young female soldier to kiss him. The list goes on and Israelis have had enough.

Tonight’s demonstration will be just as much about their disgust with standards in public life, as it will be about the bungling of last summer’s war. Regardless, Ehud Olmert will remain the principle target of their hostility, and many here predict a large turnout may put him under intolerable pressure.

May 3, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Baby Step Diplomacy

March 27, 2007 9:06 AM

By BRUNO NOTA

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agree to meet ever two weeks. This was the highlight of the press conference held by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier today, press conference which concludes the Secretary’s three day visit in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

It may not sound like much, but for the leaders of the two embattled nations to even agree to stick to a schedule is a step forward.

Whether this agreement will materialize and whether these meetings will become as news item as common as the news about the Israeli Army’s raids in the West Bank or about Kassam rockets fired from Gaza at Israel is yet to be seen.

Both Olmert and Abbas are, at his point in time, quite busy fighting for their own political survival.

Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Fatah, is the President of a people without a state which a year ago voted for the rival Hamas by an overwhelming majority. In Gaza, where the Hamas is the dominant political and military force, the rivalry translated at times over the last few months into fierce exchanges of gun fire which left tens of Palestinians dead.

Two weeks ago Abbas swore in a new cabinet, the direct result of the Mecca agreement, a power share political deal between Fatah and Hamas.

Just over a year ago Ehud Olmert presented his cabinet to the Israeli public. According to a recent public opinion poll, only 3% of the same public would vote for Olmert again. With unfavorable conclusions expected to be published by a committee investigating the performance of the Israeli government and military during the Second Lebanon War of the summer of 2006, Olmert is unlikely to gain any additional public support and sympathy.

The Arab summit scheduled to take place later this week will focus on the Saudi Arabian initiative designed to bring to a peaceful end of the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

It is hard to imagine Olmert and Abbas will be the ones to sign a final treaty which will allow the two nations to co-exist peacefully side by side in two independent states. Neither are core issues of the conflict likely to be solved soon.

But talking to each other is a step, small as it may be, in the right direction.

And only a very few would dispute the fact that talking is better than shooting.

March 27, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0)

The Lebanon War: Not Yet the End.

March 06, 2007 9:30 AM

By BRUNO NOTA

Over seven months after the military confrontation with Lebanon’s Hezbollah has ended, the Israeli political and defense establishments are still trying to determine what went wrong during the summer of 2006.

Justice Micha Lindenstrauss, the Israeli state comptroller, came this morning to the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, to present partial findings of his inquiry into the activity of various civil institutions and the military’s Home Front command during the war which disrupted the lives of over a million residents of Northern Israel.

The Knesset appearance by Justice Lindenstrauss was preceded by a Supreme Court decision which limited the amount of information he could divulge in the public hearing to procedural matters only. The decision came in response to an appeal by the I.D.F.’s Home Front commander, one of the subjects of the inquiry, who claimed he was not given enough time to read the report and formulate a response to what he perceived could be direct accusations against him and the unit he commands.

Lindenstrauss did point out in the hearing the fact that in contrast to all the other officials who co-operated with the committee, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is the only one who did not yet respond to the 12 questions sent to him.

It is not clear how important to the conclusion of the report Olmert’s lack of co-operation is. It is clear thought that the allegedly apolitical institution of the State Comptroller is now caught in the middle of the political dispute between Olmert’s supporters and his opponents.

In addition to the Lindenstrauss’ inquiry, succumbing to public pressure, Ehud Olmert appointed on September 11 2006 Justice Eliahu Vinograd to head a state inquiry committee meant to examine his government’s handling of the war. Olmert did co-operate with the Vinograd committee. It will be the publication of the Vinograd report in the coming months which is expected to have a direct impact on the Israeli Prime Minister’s political future.

Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, the I.D.F. Chief of Staff during the war resigned in February 2007. He remains to this day the only top ranking Israeli to have paid a personal price for his professional performance during the events of summer 2006.

March 6, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (1)

Victimized public figures?!

March 02, 2007 6:11 PM

By BRUNO NOTA

The elder of the Israeli politicians, today a member of the Knesset and deputy prime minister Shimon Peres said once that the press has made a dictatorship impossible and the democracy unbearable.

The dispute over how far the press can, or actually should go in order to uncover suspicions of misconduct or wrongdoing on the part of society’s democratically elected few will probably not come to a conclusion for some time to come.

The love -- hate relationship between journalists and politicians is a fact of life, intricate to both groups’ professional careers.

But lately, few Israeli politicians who have come under the scrutiny of the public eye, found a new way to deal with the accusations brought against them in the press: counterattack. Why not? Blame the press for trying to ruin their career, for getting children coming back from school in tears, accuse single journalists or entire media establishments of letting personal dislikes or political disagreements inspire their work.

Esterina Tartman, is a member of Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset. The personal page of MK Tartman in the Knesset’s internet site showed she held an MA degree. that was the case till few days ago. Today the education segment for MK Tartman is entirely gone.

Tartman has “slightly” misrepresented her academic achievements. One of the Israeli papers uncovered the fact and as a result Tartman’s candidacy for the Tourism portfolio in Edud Olmert’s government was retired.

In a prime time televised press conference Tartman admitted she should have made clear what her real education was. And without a pause she accused the reporters covering her press conference of.. doing their job and uncovering the truth?!

Just over a month ago, a very emotional President Moshe Katzav, again , in a prime time televised press conference, accused the media and the police of no less than a public lynch against him. Mr Katzav is at present preparing to present his case in a hearing with attorney general Menahem Mazuz in an effort to avoid an indictment on charges of rape.

The public right’s to know is a subject widely discussed in Israel. The half hourly radio newscasts, the talk shows, the one hour long evening news shows on the three main Israeli television channels leave the majority of the Israeli public with almost no way to ignore the day’s events.

Once elected for public office, politicians sometime forget promises made to their electorate. They do remember though the public opinion is shaped by the results of their parliamentary or governmental work as much as it is influenced by media reports telling a story they may want untold.

And like in any other democracy, it is the Israeli public who will have its final say on who of the politicians pointing the finger, not assuming responsibility for their actions will be elected again to public office.

March 2, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0)

To See or Not to See

February 22, 2007 3:00 PM

By BRUNO NOTA

When a picture is worth so much more than a thousand words...

The front page picture of two of the most circulated daily papers in Israel shows Minister of Defense Amir Peretz and the newly appointed IDF chief of staff Lt.  Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi  observing a military exercise, both using binoculars.  Only one of them, however, actually seeing anything.  Peretz forgot to take the protective caps off,  and the cameras were there to unmercifully immortalize the moment.

Amir Peretz’s appointment as minister of defense by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is still the subject of dispute  among Israelis. Peretz, the politician who vowed to have his Labor  Party aim to fight for social justice, took a sharp turn off course immediately after last year’s elections to head the department of defense. The Labor  Party is the second largest in the present coalition headed by Olmert of Kadima and,  as such, its leader was entitled to the prestigious office. The temptation was too much for Peretz.

During the summer of 2006 Peretz’s skills as the head of the Israeli defense establishment were put to the test. The outcome of the confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based military group, made many Israelis question whether Peretz was the right man for the job. If nothing else, this picture will make some Israelis smile.

In a couple of months Peretz will try to get re-elected as head of the Labor  Party and  retain his post as minister of defense. Among the other candidates running against him will be  former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Ami Ayalon, former commander of the Israeli  Navy and former head of the Israeli General Security Service.  Today is likely not the last  day we will see this photograph of Peretz.

February 22, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (4)