BBC Ignores Hamas Blockade of Gaza

[Teddy Bear]

Following Israel easing the blockade of Gaza to allow a wider variety of products to be imported there, it appears that Hamas has been feeling the pinch. Before they were able to profit by smuggling goods through tunnels from Egypt, with the blockade eased, people in Gaza can now obtain these goods far cheaper. So is Hamas happy that the 'humanitarian crisis', that the BBC loved to report about - always quoting the wringing hand sources within the UN and sundry 'human rights organisations, besides the 'poor Palestinians themselves, now it has been eased? E

Apparently not, Hamas is more concerned about it's lost revenues from smuggling these items. So they have imposed their own blockade of Israeli goods that can be imported into Gaza. Bear in mind that even after Israel had eased this blockade the BBC were still running articles that it didn't go far enough to ease 'crippled Gaza'. Naturally Hamas used the opportunity to further the negativity that Israel should be seen in, and the BBC were happy to quote their views, without the logical inference that perhaps if they stopped firing rockets at Israel there would be more harmony.

It would appear that whoever controls which stories should be aired from the region decided that it wouldn't be in their interest to report on these latest decisions by Hamas. After all how can they show Israel causing a humanitarian crisis on the one hand by a 'crippling blockade' even after it's eased, when Hamas then comes along and imposes their own?

For the BBC, better people don't know about it.

The eminent Robin Shepherd writes about it here:

Hamas imposes blockade of Israeli goods to Gaza, global outcry at “humanitarian crisis” fails to materialise

I’m all eyes and ears. Surely it’s going to come from every direction imaginable: saturation coverage on the BBC, leader columns in the Financial Times, op-eds by the dozen in the Guardian, resolutions galore in the European Parliament and the UN, a UK Foreign Office enraged by the cruelty of it all. What on earth have the Israelis done now? Well hold on to your braces, because the blockade of Gaza is back, and, wait for it, it’s now been imposed by Hamas.

Yes, you read that right. Nine months after Israel began relaxing restrictions on exports to the Gaza strip Hamas has re-imposed them. The blockade will apply to all goods that can’t be produced locally or obtained from elsewhere. The reason for the move is partly that like all Islamo-fascist outfits Hamas does not look kindly on things that bear the fingerprint of the dreaded Jew — or as the Jerusalem Post reported it, they’d rather do business with the Arabs — but also it’s because, now that imports are flowing in from Israel, the terror group’s extortion rackets from the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt are yielding a good deal less in revenue than they used to.

Surely there’s going to be an outcry! The Gaza “blockade”, let’s not forget, was one of the great humanitarian causes of our time: malnourished children roaming the streets in search of food; babies with jaundice; old women huddled around camp fires because the evil Israelis had cut off the fuel supplies. Believe it or not, a ban on Israeli fuel is part of the new blockade: “Hamas has also stopped the daily fuel supplies it used to receive from Israeli energy company Dor Alon,” the Jerusalem Post reported today. “In the past, Dor Alon used to transfer about 1,000 liters a day to the Gaza Strip for the power station, but now Hamas prefers to receive its fuel from a contraband pipeline it has set up through a tunnel under the Egyptian-Gazan border”.

In all seriousness, the way that this story is handled in Western political and media circles is going to tell us something very significant indeed. Because if, as I strongly suspect, the story is largely (or wholly) ignored the charge of bigotry against the massed ranks of Israel’s critics over Gaza will have been proved beyond the slightest shred of reasonable doubt.

It’s a slam dunk argument: concern for the welfare of the people of Gaza either was the reason for the outrage at the restrictions, or it wasn’t. If it wasn’t, then it was bigotry. And we will know whether it was or it wasn’t very soon.

NB: So far, the only word about Gaza on the MidEast section of the BBC website is on something I wrote about in the last posting but one — the BBC’s celebration of a Gaza “war crimes” photo exhibition by a photographer whose work has compared Israel to Nazi Germany. But let’s just see what happens….

[Teddy Bear]

In a similar vein, here what the BBC does report on is that there is a building boom going on in Gaza that is more due to the use of blackmarket smuggling tunnels, than the fact that Israel has relaxed the type of materials that they allow legally to enter.

I notice however they don't report on Gaza's first five-star hotel provides luxury and hope amid the blockades, as this would spoil the view they prefer to project of the poor oppressed Gazans by the evil Israeli state. Better to show them as building their territory despite whatever Israel does to stop them, as the following article plainly sets out to do.

Like for example
Gaza is desperately in need of reconstruction.
Decades of conflict, not least Israel's major offensive against the Islamist movement Hamas from December 2008 to January 2009, have left thousands of buildings and homes needing to be rebuilt.

Now as I recall, Israel moved all of its citizens out of the Gaza strip and gave the whole territory to the Palestinians, complete already with viable and working industries that Israel had already set up.
Instead of the Palestinians 'building up their territory' they elected to destroy whatever infrastructure was in place and THEY went on the offensive by launching rockets at Israel.

But the BBC wouldn't let facts or truth get in the way of their desired narrative.

Israel is worried, it says, about concrete and cement being using for military purposes by Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007. Israel regards Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
Not to mention the US and the EU, but better you believe it is only Israel that regard Hamas in this light.

To gain any understanding of the real dynamics in operation you would have to read between the following lines and think for yourself:
But he says construction materials provide the biggest business because of the demand.

I put it to him that all this must surely be good for the economy in Gaza, where earlier this year the United Nations estimated that 45% of the work force was unemployed.

"It's not 100% good because all of this is illegitimate. This is empowering the black economy. We want to have a transparent and legal economy," he replies.

Mr Shaban says the tunnels are creating a mafia-style economy, from which a few people in Gaza are getting very rich.

He also says Hamas are making money too because they regulate the tunnel trade.

"They benefit in two ways - from imposing taxes and tariffs on everything that comes through, and also through trading directly themselves."


So let's see, Hamas continues its offensive against Israel, knowing full well that there will be an embargo imposed. But since they can bring goods in via tunnels from Egypt it is 'business as usual' and they can charge a higher tariff than if it was legitimate.


Funny how Jon Donnison, or the other BBC Mid-East 'experts' haven't figured it out yet.

Smuggling drives Gaza's building boom
By Jon Donnison
BBC News, Gaza City

Palestinian builders in Gaza, like Musla Embayed, say their skills are in demand

"I didn't have a job for four years because of Israel's blockade. Now I've got more work than I can handle," smiles Musla Embayed a chunky-looking builder, with a vice-like handshake.

Musla is working on a new block of flats in the centre of Gaza City. He is caked in a thick crust of sweat and dust. It is tough work with the temperature approaching 40C.

"There is too much work now," he laughs.

Musla is benefitting from a mini-construction boom in the Gaza Strip. On almost every street of the coastal territory's biggest city, you can see some type of building going up or being renovated.

The sense of a boom is accentuated by the fact that for so long the need has been so great.

Gaza is desperately in need of reconstruction.

Decades of conflict, not least Israel's major offensive against the Islamist movement Hamas from December 2008 to January 2009, have left thousands of buildings and homes needing to be rebuilt.

Israel's ongoing blockade of Gaza means there are still tight restrictions on construction materials coming legally across the border.

Israel is worried, it says, about concrete and cement being using for military purposes by Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007. Israel regards Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

But this construction boom has its roots not in Israel, but in Egypt. And it is built on illegal smuggling.

Underground trade
Parts of Rafah, the southern Gazan town right on the border with Egypt, have the feel of a major industrial zone or port. It is dusty, hot and noisy with the smell of diesel in the air.

Smuggling tunnels between Egypt and Gaza bring in much-needed construction supplies
Hundreds of white tents line the border with Egypt. Under each tent is a tunnel. They are barely hidden.

This is not a secret smuggling operation. It is big business, out in the open.

Inside one tent, grimy young men are winching up bags of cement, gravel and plaster of Paris.

The tunnel shaft is well built. It is about 1.5m (4.9ft) wide, with an electric lift used to bring the goods up from the blackness.

"It's about 800m (2,625ft) long," says Abu Khalil who helps run this tunnel.

"We bring between 50 and 80 tonnes of material through here every day."

The blockade is hurting the Israeli economy as well as the Gaza economy. The Israelis could be taking my money instead of the Egyptians”

Evidence of this is piled up next to us. Hundreds of bags of cement, as well as gas canisters are ready to be loaded onto a huge truck waiting outside.

And this is relatively small fry.

Back north in Gaza City, I meet Rafik Hassouna who runs one of the biggest construction companies in the Strip.

Mr Hassouna does not have a tunnel himself but he buys the materials from merchants once they are in Gaza.

"Now I am using around 1,300 tonnes of gravel and cement from the tunnels every week," he says.

Mr Hassouna specialises in building roads.

Since the upheaval in Egypt earlier this year, he says, the Egyptians are much more lax about smuggling tunnels and have relaxed security.

Mr Hassouna adds that Egyptians are also making good money out of it.

Mafia-style economy
Omar Shaban, an economist with the Gaza-based think-tank, PalThink, agrees that security on the Egyptian side of the border has been relaxed but he says there are other factors at play.

"The whole smuggling process has become more professional, more institutionalised, more sophisticated. It is no longer the work of children. It is the work of sophisticated smuggling groups in Egypt and in Gaza."

There are buildings across Gaza in urgent need of reconstruction
Mr Shaban says that even groups as far away as China and Dubai are involved in smuggling some goods such as mobile phones. He says they know they have a market in Gaza.

But he says construction materials provide the biggest business because of the demand.

I put it to him that all this must surely be good for the economy in Gaza, where earlier this year the United Nations estimated that 45% of the work force was unemployed.

"It's not 100% good because all of this is illegitimate. This is empowering the black economy. We want to have a transparent and legal economy," he replies.

Mr Shaban says the tunnels are creating a mafia-style economy, from which a few people in Gaza are getting very rich.

He also says Hamas are making money too because they regulate the tunnel trade.

"They benefit in two ways - from imposing taxes and tariffs on everything that comes through, and also through trading directly themselves."

'Hurting Israel'
For Mr Shaban, this shows the stupidity of Israel's blockade.

He says that while the UN is struggling to get building material in legally from Israel for its projects, Hamas can get all it wants through the tunnels and is also profiting.

Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, accepts that Hamas is able to get building materials through the tunnels from Egypt, but says this does not change his government's policy.

"It's true that a lot of material gets in to Gaza underground and Hamas can lay their hands on that, but it doesn't mean we have to make it easier for them. Hamas is not an organisation that needs to be helped by Israel, certainly not with its current policies," he says.

Mr Hassouna would actually rather be buying Israeli cement for his construction company.

"It's better quality" he says. "The blockade is hurting the Israeli economy as well as the Gaza economy."

"The Israelis could be taking my money instead of the Egyptians," he adds with a wry smile.

Meanwhile, Mr Hassouna will keep on building while he can.

"We need more and more construction. Four years of blockade means demand is so high," he says.