Land of Ruins: A Special Report on Gaza’s Economy

[Jefferson23]

April 06, 2009

**Democracy Now! producer Anjali Kamat files a report on the state of the Gazan economy, where unemployment and poverty rates are among the highest in the world. Despite international pledges of over $5.2 billion to rebuild Gaza, in the four months since Israel’s assault the siege has not been lifted and only one truck carrying cement and other construction materials has been allowed entry into the Gaza Strip.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn, though, now to, well, an international story, a report on the state of the Gazan economy, where unemployment and poverty rates are among the highest in the world. Despite international pledges of over $5.2 billion to rebuild Gaza, in the four months since Israel’s assault the siege has not been lifted and only one truck carrying cement and other construction materials has been allowed entry into the Gaza Strip. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, this truck, which Israel permitted in late March, was the first carrying construction materials to be granted entry since last November.

Democracy Now!’s Anjali Kamat traveled to Gaza with Jacquie Soohen of Big Noise Films last month. She filed this story.

ANJALI KAMAT: Gaza is now a land of ruins. On December 27th, 2008, Israel launched a brutal twenty-two-day military operation in the Gaza Strip that killed over 1,400 Palestinians, the vast majority civilians. In addition to government and United Nations buildings, it is estimated that 21,000 homes were destroyed in all, leaving 100,000 people homeless. Over 600 industries and small businesses in Gaza were razed to the ground, sustaining $180 million in damages, according to the United Nations Development Program.

in full here: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/6/land_of_ruins_a_special_report

[ProgressiveMuslim]

1. Everyone who weighs in on Israel's massacre in Gaza should be required to hear/read this report.

Let's all be clear on the situation on the ground.

[Jefferson23]

3. I just wish this report was carried by the MSM.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[azurnoir]

6. Perhaps they should ask Danny Zamir n/t

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[Idealism]

8. And this from someone who denies that Gazans have starved due to the blockade?

You are as bad as a Holocaust denier.

[Sezu]

9. Still can't f ind a picture of even ONE starving Gazan can you? n/t

[ProgressiveMuslim]

10. Are you actually DENYING the devastation of Gaza?

Are you for real?

[Sezu]

11. Devastation is ONE thing. The constant claim of

starvation is another. A picture is worth a thousand words and I have yet to see such a picture which I know there would be plenty of if it were true. And yes I am real and I want some REAL pictorial proof of that starvation. We have seen such pictures from elsewhere in the world; why not Palestine where according to some that's all they ever do is starve.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

12. Are these kids skinny enough to satisfy you? Are these bread lines long enough for you?

http://picasaweb.google.com/sameh.habeeb/BakeriesOfGazaOutOfBreadPeopleAreHungry#


The photographer should have asked them to disrobe to prove to Western doubters like you that they really are malnourished. I suppose it will take stacks of emaciated bodies to satisfy you.

There are 61,000 families without homes, much less refrigerators and ovens.

Please re-read your post and re-think your attitude. Do you think the utter lack of human compassion in the way you write about this conflict is something to be proud of? Your post is nauseating.

[Sezu]

14. The caption says HUNGRY not Starving

There is a HUGE propaganda difference and anyone smart enough to post here should know that. So, my ATTITUDE is that I prefer the TRUTH rather than hyperbole. Why don't YOU?

I have plenty of compassion for hungry people; NONE for those who propagandize. All I'm asking is the propaganda STOP and be replaced by words which reflect the true realities. Why should that make me a bad person to anyone but dedicated propagandists?

[ProgressiveMuslim]

16. REALITY: The nation your support is not allowing adequate food supplies to cross the border.

Does anyone dispute that?

There is not enough food in Gaza Strip.
There is not enough medicine in Gaza Strip.
There are not enough building materials in Gaza Strip.
1400+ are dead.
61,000 are homeless.

Do you actually dispute this?

[azurnoir]

19. Your attitude reflects one who is using

weasel words to propagandize as somehow just not really that bad, a situation which has been artificially created by simply not allowing food to enter a area as revenge against a civilian population.

[Jefferson23]

13. So are you suggesting you can't find any evidence for yourself, and

please define what starving looks like according to you in a photograph.

From ICRC, snip* In unusually strong terms, the neutral agency said it believed Israel had breached international humanitarian law in the incident.


Gaza Strip
ICRC finds starving children beside dead mother
(3)
January 8, 2009, 14:59

Relief workers found four starving children sitting next to their dead mothers and other corpses in a house in a part of Gaza City bombed by Israeli forces, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday.
http://www.welt.de/english-news/article2992424/ICRC-finds-starving-children-beside-dead-mother.html

[ProgressiveMuslim]

15. Those must be the kids we saw on Al Jazeera asking the rescuers for meat.

But they're just hungry.

[Jefferson23]

17. I'm still waiting on a response to my post, we'll see. Some people

have a hard time defining torture too.

At the link I posted, there on the left, is a gallery of photos for anyone interested.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

18. Some people are ghouls when it comes to someone else's suffering. nt

[ProgressiveMuslim]

2. But the economic devastation of Gaza did not begin with this latest assault

that Israel dubbed “Operation Cast Lead.” Since 1967, Israel has maintained full control over Gaza’s borders. The restrictions grew tighter after Hamas won the elections in January 2006, and the blockade became a full-scale siege in June of 2007, when Hamas forces defeated those of rival Fatah, solidifying its control of the Gaza Strip.


Palestinian economist Omar Shabaan laid out the economic and political consequences of the siege, now in its twenty-second month.


OMAR SHABAAN: Since the closure in 2007, 95 percent of the Palestinian factories in Gaza closed down. We have 4,000 small businesses in Gaza. Two hundred thousand workers become unemployed in Gaza. And to make it clear to you, this 200,000 have no other option except joining the militia. They will become more radical. The siege, which was imposed by Israel, everybody knows now, it failed to bring any peace and moderation to the Palestinian society. This siege left Hamas with no competitors. Hamas is the only player in Gaza. So the international community should stop to blame us, and they should start to blame themselves for their own policy that they were imposing in Gaza.


JOHN GING: So, the siege is at the center of everything. It’s at the center of human misery. It’s at the center of violence. It’s at the center of desperation and a sense—a growing sense of hopelessness. So, you know, before this particular round of conflict, we had a situation where the economy had been destroyed under the siege; there was no commercial activity whatsoever. And the humanitarian effort just to sustain people with basic food and medicine and so on, this was a struggle. In fact, in November of last year, we ran out of food, because we weren’t able to get in sufficient quantities of food. For the first time in sixty years of UNRWA’s operation here, we actually ran out of food. We normally carry two months’ reserves, but we depleted all of our reserves, because we were getting in insufficient quantities to actually meet the demands. At that point, there were 750,000 refugees food-aid-dependent. Again, this is the inevitable consequences of having no economy.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/6/land_of_ruins_a_special_report

[azurnoir]

5. what must be recognized

is that this situation has been intentionally created and maintained and will continue to be until the world and one country in particular has the courage to stand up and do something to put a stop to this