|
Paleos want to re-open Gaza airport
Hat tip: LGFFour years after Gaza International Airport's sole runway was demolished by Israeli F-16s, one Palestinian man remembers the ghostly terminal's better days and waits patiently for their return. "This airport was the symbol of the Palestinians' independence and freedom. It was our dream. All we are waiting for is the green light to rebuild and start again," said Ghazi Gharib, who heads Palestinian Airlines' communications for the site. The international airport in southern Gaza, near the town of Rafah on the Egyptian border, was opened in 1998 and was closed by Israel in 2001 following the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising. Still, each day of the work week Gharib comes to work at the airport along with some 500 other employees who are paid by the Palestinian Authority. They take up their posts knowing they will have nothing to do all day. Nice work if you can get it. Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas has pressed Israel to let the airport reopen once Israel completed its withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip this summer, but no concrete agreement has been made. "As soon as the accord is concluded, we will get to work," said Gharib. "We need six months and 20 million dollars The airport cost about 70 million dollars to build, and was serviced by Palestinian Airlines which had two Fokker-50 aircraft and one Boeing 727 -- all donated -- the year it opened. Construction began on the airport after the 1993 Oslo accords were signed in a bid to restore Middle East peace. The airport functioned primarily as a hub for Arafat when he took trips to other countries. But when the Israelis destroyed the airport, "all our dreams were stopped cold. We had projected that by 2005 we'd have flights to Paris, Frankfurt and New York," Gharib said. Oh, yeah. Let's have Paleos flying planes into New York. Posted by: Jackal 2005-08-27 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=127899 |