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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Former settlements booming |
| 2006-05-22 |
| Apparently, the headline was not meant to be a Rantburg-style pun! While much of the Gaza Strip sits idle waiting for Western aid and government salaries to return, Maher Rabbah is sweating through the final phases of building his beach cafe. "Summer is coming and I'm building," says Rabbah, 31. "The more miserable life is for everyone in Gaza, the more they need the beach. Our people would sooner go without food, than not come to the beach." Up and down the beaches of southern Gaza, which until last September were for Israeli settlers only, a construction boom is underway. But as Gaza's entrepreneurs seize on the fresh expanses of coastal real estate, the newly elected Hamas government is looking to assert itself. Hamas has vowed to reclaim the old settlements for public use. These entrepreneurs, the government said, must get permits and pay rent or face expulsion. And the armed factions that have set up training camps and makeshift fortresses atop many of the old settlements likewise must clear out. "We are ready to go in and start enforcing the law," Abu Bilal, an assistant to interior minister Said Siam, told AFP. "This is the land we liberated from occupation and it belongs to all the people." The former settlements are a rare patch of economic bustle in Gaza, which is reeling under sanctions slapped on the Palestinian Authority by Western countries after the Islamist Hamas movement, committed to Israel's destruction, came to power after winning January elections. On the beaches of Rafah and Khan Yunis, newly built bamboo huts selling a spot of shade, water pipes, and falafel sandwiches stretch as far as the eye can see on the once barren sands. Further inland, Gazans have found unlikely uses for the rubble heaps of the destroyed settlements. Scavengers harvest rebar from the settlers' demolished homes. Five kilograms of the rusted iron fetches one shekel (20 US cents). On an abandoned Israeli military base, children dig for unspent ammunition. A single Kalashnikov or M-16 round sells for 13 shekels on Gaza's expansive underground weapons market. For those likely to lose out once the government moves in, the new regulations are unwelcome. "Our government should worry about paying its employees so that they can come spend money in my store," said Atef Anwar, owner of a ramshackle drinks stand on the beach near Khan Yunis. "But instead they're going to destroy the only source of income many of us have." "What public use is there for this land when the government has no money?" asked Nazef Mohammed, who earns a living selling scrap metal collected from the settlements. "The people have already found a way to use this land." Hamas says they will use the spreads of open land for public interest projects such as schools, playing fields, hospitals and farmland. More importantly, Hamas officials say, these new regulations will bring a bit of order to lawless Gaza. "If we didn't do this there would be no more free land in all of Gaza for any government projects," the interior ministry's Bilal said. And for those who have managed to secure permits, the new government regulations are a welcome change. After the Israeli withdrawal, Ayman Inshassi, a business savvy 23-year-old, was quick to stake out a plot of prime beach real estate. He built a restaurant and a dozen palm frond umbrellas for sunbathers. But a nearby Gaza landlord demanded he pay 500 shekels a month for access. With no legal recourse, Inshassi coughed up the monthly rent. "It was extortion but what could I do," said Inshassi. "He had no more right to the land than I did." Now Inshassi has a permit and official sanction for his business. "That corrupt landowner can no longer steal my money," he says. "This is a good thing. We need some law in Gaza." Further inland, another fixture of Palestinian society has set up shop amidst the old settlements. Various militant factions have built training camps and makeshift fortresses atop the sandy hilltops. On one dune yellow flags signal a Fatah territorial claim. On the next one Hamas flies its green flags. Mohammed Abu Jazar, a Fatah activist, fears the Hamas government's new rules are simply a ploy to uproot Fatah's presence here. Fatah, the movement of the moderate Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, and Hamas are locked in a fierce power struggle. "We will abandon ours when they abandon theirs," said Abu Jazar. "If we abandon these bases so people can have hospitals and schools then we have no problem with it. But we are afraid that Hamas just wants all the bases for themselves." |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #3 If a little more Islam doesn't work, try a little more Communism. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-05-22 14:20 |
| #2 "Our people would sooner go without food, than not come to the beach" Your "leadership" is taking care of #1. Hamas has declared sharia, haven't they? That'll take care of #2. Unless the women plan to come to the beach in burkhas. Good luck, Rabbah - you're gonna need it. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-05-22 14:14 |
| #1 Further inland, another fixture of Palestinian society has set up shop amidst the old settlements. Various militant factions have built training camps and makeshift fortresses atop the sandy hilltops. On one dune yellow flags signal a Fatah territorial claim. On the next one Hamas flies its green flags. Think they're "booming now"? Well just you wait... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-05-22 11:08 |