Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Israelis gone, but rebuilding just starting in Gaza - International Herald Tribune
In a place where most everyone has a hard-luck story, Ibrahim Abu Shatat could write an entire book.
Two of his homes have been destroyed by Israeli troops, he has been out of work for six years, and his family of nine has lived in the storage room under Rafah's soccer stadium for three years.
Yet Shatat may be one of the few Gazans who see a ray of hope.
Partly through his persistence, construction has begun on 300 homes in the sand dunes next to the former Jewish settlement of Rafiah Yam.
Along with a neighboring school, they are the first major construction projects in or near a settlement since Israeli soldiers and settlers pulled out of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005.
...
The settlements also came with greenhouses that offered the prospect of thousands of agricultural jobs. Yet the greenhouses sit idle.
The Palestinians invested millions of dollars to repair the greenhouses shortly after the Israelis left, and had an excellent crop in the winter of 2005 and 2006. But they were unable to export their produce to Europe, the main market, because Israel kept Gaza's main crossing for goods closed for weeks at a time, citing security concerns.
Short of money and fearing a similar fate this year, the Palestinians did not plant a winter crop in the greenhouses. But the goods crossing has been mostly open in recent weeks, when the crops would have been ready for export. ...
In a place where most everyone has a hard-luck story, Ibrahim Abu Shatat could write an entire book.
Two of his homes have been destroyed by Israeli troops, he has been out of work for six years, and his family of nine has lived in the storage room under Rafah's soccer stadium for three years.
Yet Shatat may be one of the few Gazans who see a ray of hope.
Partly through his persistence, construction has begun on 300 homes in the sand dunes next to the former Jewish settlement of Rafiah Yam.
Along with a neighboring school, they are the first major construction projects in or near a settlement since Israeli soldiers and settlers pulled out of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005.
...
The settlements also came with greenhouses that offered the prospect of thousands of agricultural jobs. Yet the greenhouses sit idle.
The Palestinians invested millions of dollars to repair the greenhouses shortly after the Israelis left, and had an excellent crop in the winter of 2005 and 2006. But they were unable to export their produce to Europe, the main market, because Israel kept Gaza's main crossing for goods closed for weeks at a time, citing security concerns.
Short of money and fearing a similar fate this year, the Palestinians did not plant a winter crop in the greenhouses. But the goods crossing has been mostly open in recent weeks, when the crops would have been ready for export. ...
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