Israeli Closure Devastates Economy And Threatens Peace Process

by Maureen Meehan

The closure imposed on the West Bank and Gaza Strip following the nine-day suicide bombing spree that killed 59 people is the most stringent in memory.

Viewed as severe collective punishment for the acts of a few individuals, it also is seen by many Palestinians as an attempt by Israelcurrently enjoying increased international support in the wake of the bombingsto maintain control over Palestinian interests as well as determine the outcome of what remains of the peace process.

Since the beginning of the closure, Israel has been creating facts on the ground that stand in the way of implementing the agreement and settling some delicate issues with the Palestinians, said Ala’edeen Shawa, director of the Gaza- and New York-based Development Resource Center (DRC).

Shawa said this has been Israel’s strategy from the beginning and points to Prime Minister Shimon Peres’ recent announcement that he would call a referendum before signing any final agreement with the Palestinians as an example: “They’ve already designed and produced the answer.”

While many analysts view Peres’ remarks as campaign rhetoric aimed at reassuring voters that they can re-elect him in the upcoming elections scheduled for May 29 without fearing he will give too much to the Palestinians without their approval, Palestinians see it as a violation of the peace process.

Shawa said Peres’ comment puts Palestinian national aspirations and the final outcome of the agreementto be negotiated over the coming three yearsat the mercy of Israeli voters who will be monitoring Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat to make sure he keeps his vow to uproot terrorism.

As it stands, the Palestinian National Authority and Israeli security forces have gone all out in their mutual tasks of apprehending suspected Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants. To date the PNA has arrested over 1,000 people in Gaza and areas it controls in the West Bank.

Not to be outdone, the Israelis have arrested at least 1,000 Palestinians, including 370 people in one sweep, when they raided Birzeit University and surrounding West Bank villages in early April.

Among the immediate effects of the closure are the deaths of eight Palestinians, including three infants, who were prevented access to medical treatment; the demolition of at least 10 houses that left dozens homeless, including many children; and the closure of numerous Islamic charitable institutions, including an orphanage.

Shlomo Dror, spokesperson for Israel’s policy chief in the occupied territories, said the orphanage was closed “because we don’t believe teachers have a right to indoctrinate their kids that suicide bombers are heroes they should emulate.”

DRC’s Shawa says Israel is in the process, with or without the closure, of totally shattering the Palestinian economic base for the long term. He said the most serious economic effect is not that some 100,000 Palestinians who traditionally worked in Israel lost their jobs but that “agricultural, industrial and manufacturing sectors have no access to markets in the West Bank, Jordan and the rest of the Arab world nor are they able to import essential raw materials. It seems quite apparent that Israel wants to see the total destruction of the Palestinian economic base. There is no other explanation for what is going on,” said Shawa who confirmed reports that unemployment among Palestinians is running as high as 78 percent in Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

In a recent “easing of the closure,” Israel granted permission for 3,000 agricultural workers to enter southern Israel from Gaza. The requirements state that workers be approved by Israeli security forces, married, over 45 years of age and be picked up and returned to the Gaza checkpoint by their Israeli employers, who must conduct a daily head count. The first day the new measure went into effect (April 8), the head count was easy: only 12 workers from Gaza took advantage of the job opportunity.

“Israel’s supposed easing of the closure is purely cosmetic and fed to the Western press in order to create the impression that the closure is temporary, but in fact the difficulties are becoming chronic and are exacerbating the already distressful conditions in Gaza,” said Salah Saca, Gaza Strip Director of ANERA, American Near East Refugee Aid.

“Worst of all, our dignity is being compromised as we are reduced to the role of begging when we are perfectly willing to build up our own economy if it were not for the constant obstacles placed before us by Israel,” added Saca.

He said Gaza’s once lucrative fishing sector was reduced to shambles when an Israeli naval blockade was imposed. Hundreds of fishermen, whose nets were already cast in the deep waters off Gaza’s coast, were told on March 9th that they could not go out to retrieve them.

For days, Gaza’s 2,000 or so fishermen could only watch from the shore as their nets either rotted in the waters or their marker buoys were shot at or cut loose by Israeli marines, thus sinking the nets forever. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in fishing equipment were lost during that period in addition to hundreds more in income from fish sales.

Chris Bean, Gaza’s CARE Fisheries Project Manager, explained that when the total naval blockade was eased, Israel reduced the permitted fishing area to the exclusion of some of the most fertile waters where the lucrative manray and sardine season is at its height, dealing a serious blow to Gaza fishermenmany of whom have nearly gone broke. “During the height of the fishing seasons which is now, fishermen lose a disproportionate amount of their year’s earningsa few weeks’ catch can represent half the year’s income,” said Bean.

The Palestinian Department of Fisheries calculates that the loss of gear, reduced fishing area and loss of external market is already running into the millions.

Gaza’s flower export industry is also on the verge of collapse with the carnation harvest underway between February and May. Nabil Muhala Lati, office manager of the Arab Development and Credit Company, a European Union-supported NGO, said almost all of Gaza’s greenhouses were stuck with nowhere to ship their billions of flowers once the borders to Israel, through which they normally ship their goods, were sealed.

The flower harvest was at its height just as the closure was imposed. “It’s a real pity for the growers because prices in Europe were higher than normal this year,” said Lati.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture, daily losses are estimated at $100,000 and total losses are in the millions. Farmers believe Israel’s policies will destroy what was a becoming a booming industry. They say that, due to a lack of seeds, they are unable to plant for the coming season.

Abdel Azziz Hijami, a Gaza flower grower, relates what happened when he tried to get across the Israel/Egypt border from the Gaza side to export his entire carnation harvest to Holland through Cairo. Israeli soldiers obliged him to unload every box and unpack every flower. After he re-loaded his delicate cargo, the soldiers proceeded to punch holes in every carton with a rod.

“I sent them on anyway but I don’t expect to get a check from the Dutchin fact, I won’t be surprised if they charge me for shipping because obviously the flowers will arrive dead,” said Hijami.

Gaza’s subsistence farmers, who normally contribute 30 percent to Gaza’s economic base, say they are growing worried that the closure policy and total Israeli control of the borders allowing them access to outside markets will ruin them for the future.

“Gaza has been under closure for most of the past two years. It is becoming untenable,” said an orange grower who explained that at the moment there are 60,000 tons of oranges in Gaza that must be picked and sold before the end of May. “We’ve already lost this season’s entire tomato and cauliflower harvest and everyone expects the closure to stay in effect until after the Israeli elections.”

Sandwiched between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, the Gaza Strip is 45 kilometers long and an average of 8 kilometers wide. The most densely populated non-urban place in the world, Gaza is home to 800,000 Palestinians and some 4,000 Jewish settlers. The latter own about 25 percent of the land. Gaza’s borders are tightly closed and controlled, keeping Gazans in and most everyone else out.

What worries many Palestinians is that Gaza and the West Bankwhich have no direct link between them and whose residents are rarely permitted to travel between the two placesultimately will remain under Israeli dominance with little autonomy to build an independent economy or state.

“There are many limitations built into the peace accord but if we were at least allowed to move within the perimeters of the agreement and identify them, we might be able to push the limits a bit and remove some of the obstacles,” said DRC’s Ala’edeen Shawa. “But as it stands, the agreement isn’t functioning and we can’t even move 20 meters outside of Gaza.”

The Israeli government argues that airtight borders and stepped-up patrols are the only guarantees for peace with the Palestinians. Others argue that secure as it may seem to Israel, it is the shakiest of political foundations.

Meanwhile, Bassem Himadi, a Gaza truck driver who complained that his tomatoes turned to juice while waiting to be transhipped to an Israeli truck waiting at a Gaza checkpoint, referred to his home as “the world’s largest open air prison. Actually it’s worse…at least in prison you can have visitors and there’s a release date.”

1996, continues to have serious effects on the Palestinian population of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Due to the severe travel restrictions, the economy and virtually all of the institutions of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, are suffering a slow but steady strangulation.

Health care institutions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank have suffered particularly, as neither their workers (teachers, doctors, nurses, etc.) have been able to enter Jerusalem, nor their clients have been allowed access to essential or emergency health services.

All of the Christian schools in Jerusalem have suffered drastically, as up to 40 percent of the teachers live in the West Bank and are being prevented from going to their jobs. Teachers and students of Bethlehem University have been continuously frustrated by travel restrictions and frequent harassment by soldiers at checkpoints.

All West Bank Palestinian Christians were prevented from attending holy week services at Christian churches and sites in Israel and Jerusalem. In pointed irony, travel within Bethlehem was severely restricted by Israeli police on Easter Sunday in order to allow Jews to enter the town and pray at Rachel’s tomb.

Strong complaints about the collective punishment of closure have been registered to Israeli authorities from virtually every sector of Palestinian society, from international organizations and NGOs, from church leaders, and from a growing number of groups and organizations within Israel. Despite the complaints and protests, the Israeli government has said that the closure will continue until at least the completion of Israeli elections in late May.

Classes resumed at Bethlehem University on March 18, but the closure has had serious effects on the whole of its academic life. In addition to the three weeks of class time lost during February and March, the following should be noted:

•35 BU students have been cut off in Gaza and most are liable to lose credit for the entire semester.

•Hundreds of BU students from the Hebron area have been subject to frequent curfews and consequent loss of the right to attend the university.

•2 BU professors from Gaza have not been allowed to report for work

•The immediate poverty caused by high levels of unemployment has resulted in an increase in student requests for financial aid and assistance.

•The BU staff, at the request of President Arafat, contributed 5 percent of their March salary to a fund for the unemployed.

•The university has either canceled or been forced to reschedule several major international conferences, due to the travel restrictions of the closure.

•Research by professors has been curtailed and participation in numerous conferences has been canceled, again due to travel restrictions.

•The announcement of Israeli confiscation of land in Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour for the building of settlements and bypass roads has further frustrated and angered university personnel. Many BU staff and students, some of whom trace their residency back 700 years in the Bethlehem area, own lands recently designated for confiscation.

•Provided there are no further disruptions, the university will finish its spring semester on June 21, a full three weeks late. Summer school classes will begin June 29, and graduation ceremonies will take place on July 13.

I have listed these issues and incidents for you out of concern that the continuance of the closure threatens the very mission of Bethlehem University and similar institutions, whether Christian or Muslim. The university cannot serve the people of the Holy Land in a climate of violence or in circumstances of closure. I again urge the supporters of the university to contact appropriate authorities in an appeal to promote the process of peaceful resolution of conflicts here and to demand the end of the punitive closure.

Sincerely yours, Brother Ronald Gallagher, FSC, Ph.D., Rector”

Copies of Brother Ronald’s letter have gone to Protestant, Orthodox and ecumenical as well as Roman Catholic officials in the U.S., Canada and abroad.

Ecumenical Leader Urges Broader View of Islam

Conrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, has called on the West to have a broader, clearer, inclusive view of Islamic culture and of events in the Middle East. He made this plea upon his return to Geneva on March 16 after visiting Christian and Muslim leaders in Syria and Egypt. While the threat of terrorism in the region should not be underestimated, he said, it is grossly in error to take this single element out of context and attribute it to Islam and only Islam.

Traditional Christian communities have lived with Muslims for centuries, and the two cultures have much in common. The current Muslim renewal should be seen in the context of the threat to Muslim culture from the West. The emphasis of Western culture on material values, he said, has left deep traces in the Muslim world. This emphasis “is destructive to many of the very basic religious commitments of the Muslim community, including the communal solidarity which has been characteristic of Muslim culture.”

Raiser reported that many members of the ancient churches he met in the Middle East made it clear that they were quite comfortable living along side Muslim culture, saying, “We have lived with Muslims for hundreds of years and have had our ups and downs, but there is no way of disentangling us.”

During his visit, Raiser met the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch, leaders of the Syrian Orthodox Church, of the Greek Catholic Church in Syria, and of the National Evangelical Synod in Syria and Lebanon. He also had an official meeting in Damascus with the Grand Mufti, Sheikh Ahmad Mohammed Kuftaro, the highest ranking Muslim religious leader in Syria.

In Egypt, he and his delegation met Patriarch Parthenios of Alexandria, Pope Shenouda of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Samuel Habib, president of the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services, and other Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant leaders. He also met Muslim officials and academics, and President Mubarak of Egypt.