There's nothing that says "Welcome to Gaza" like the Erez border crossing.
On one side is Israel's high-tech border terminal, complete with its maze of gates, metal detectors, body scanners, and bomb rooms -- all navigated without ever coming close to Israeli guards who watch the whole process from a second-story bank of offices overlooking the screening section
On the other side of the terminal is a vast Palestinian wasteland.
This is the No Man's Land between Israel and Hamas-controlled Gaza.
And it is an all-too-perfect metaphor for the state of affairs in this isolated Mediterranean strip.
At one time, this vast field was a thriving, Turkish-run industrial zone with large factories producing goods for Israel and jobs for Palestinians.
The site became a target of Palestinian militant attacks and was shuttered by Israel in 2004.
Over the years, the Israeli military gradually razed all the abandoned buildings in this no man's land, leaving behind vast stretches of rubble.
All that remained was a rudimentary covered concrete tunnel that connected the Israeli border terminal to the Palestinian side of Gaza.
This is what it looked like in 2005 as you entered Gaza:
After Hamas militants seized control of Gaza in June, 2007, hundreds of Palestinians sought to escape into Israel as scavengers methodically dismantled the tunnel.
This is the same tunnel as it was being dismantled by the Palestinian scavengers.
Within weeks, most of the tunnel was gone.
For more than two years, this has been the state of the border crossing.
But now there is surprising new construction at Erez.
Palestinian workers are building a 700-yard covered concrete walkway leading from the remains of the old tunnel to the Palestinian border control caravan.
The project is being done with the blessing of Israeli officials who approved a rare supply of cement to build the walkway.
Work on the Palestinian side is being coordinated by Palestinian border officials who answer not to Hamas, but to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.
Is this a sign of rebirth at Gaza?
Not really.
The construction comes as Israel is preparing to close its main fuel terminal with Gaza, which supplies the 1.4 million Palestinians with everything from cooking gas to fuel for Gaza's only power plant.
Israel plans to use another terminal at Kerem Shalom to transfer fuel. But humanitarian groups say the new terminal can't handle the necessary fuel for Gaza.
According to UN reports, Israel is still only allowing a trickle of goods. The UN reported that the number of truckloads allowed into Gaza by Israel hit a new low in September.
Last month, Israel allowed about 2,100 truckloads of goods into Gaza. Before Hamas took control of Gaza, Israel allowed more than 12,000 truckloads of goods to enter Gaza each month.
Recently, an Israeli government official was boasting that military surveillance showed that Gaza markets were full and teeming with goods. He pointed it out to suggest that Israeli restrictions were not harming Gaza.
Of course, he deftly neglected to mention that most of the goods found in Gaza markets these days don't come from Israel. They come through the dangerous network of illegal smuggling tunnels to Egypt...
Nothing should be supplied by Israel to Gaza. Why on earth would anyone allow militarily-useful goods such as concrete, steel or fertilizer to be freely shipped to a genocidal terrorist group? Gaza and its Hamas kingpins should learn to cope with life on its own instead of begging, whining and crying for handouts from the same people they are trying to kill.
Those of you who criticize Israel for blocking the transport of goods into the strip from Israel need to have your heads scanned for tumors.
Posted by: David Hickson | October 29, 2009 at 01:17 PM
David - crack a book or newspaper or better yet, buy a plane ticket and visit Israel and the occupied territories.
Israel controls all borders, sea and land, as well as airspace around and over Gaza. Although Egypt shares a short border in the south with Gaza, Israel has final say over almost every aspect of life for the inhabitants in the Gaza Strip, therefore the international community considers the Gaza Strip as occupied and Israel and the occupying power.
As the occupying power, Israel is responsible for the welfare of the inhabitants.
The blockade on Gaza and the restrictions are considered 'collective punishment' since it is punishing all 1.5 inhabitants of the strip instead of the armed Palestinian groups responsible for the rockets fired into southern Israel or the capture of Shalit.
Collective punishment like this is a war crime, and perhaps a crime against humanity.
There's too much to say in this small space, but seriously - you need educate yourself. But I have a feeling your callous comments weren't based on legal grounds, but a racist and hateful place.
We're talking hundreds of thousands of children who don't even have a glass of clean water to drink and you talk about them 'whining and crying for handouts'.
Their suffering is not a natural phenomena, but completely manmade and can be undone with political will.
Shame on you.
Posted by: Edie | October 29, 2009 at 11:41 PM
bravo edie.
Posted by: bergamo | October 30, 2009 at 04:37 AM
The overwhelming majority of Palestinians living in Gaza are innocent. Why is Israel inflicting collective punishment on them? What have babies and toddlers done to Israel? Why do they have to have to starve and live isolated from the outer world?
Not to mention all the free-thinkers who live in Gaza and hate Hamas: why are they punished by Israel too? Go to Gaza City, David: you'll see young women in tight jeans and no veil on the street, young guys singing in rap groups… Gaza is very, very different from what the propaganda disseminated in Israeli newspapers writes. Most of the people who died during Operation Cast Lead were innocent civilians: why were they punished by Israel? Non country in the world has the right to take hostage an entire population because of a few of its rulers. This is a crime of war.
Posted by: Allegra | October 30, 2009 at 05:39 AM
This article betrays its bias and repeats the lies of the Western MSM. Hamas was the duly elected government of both the West Bank and Gaza in 2006 in what observers called a fair election. It was Fatah backed by the US that wrested control of the part of the West Bank that the Israelis have not yet taken from the Palestinians in 2007.
Posted by: mingr1 | October 30, 2009 at 07:33 AM
The suffering of a people because of their rulers is one of great paradoxes of civilization. This has been showed for many thousands of years of world history. The ancient scriptures (Bible) have a plenty of such lessons.
Because these rulers were chosen by the people, the people equally pay for their foolish acts.
Posted by: Guideman | October 30, 2009 at 07:44 AM
"Because these rulers were chosen by the people, the people equally pay for their foolish acts."
And so too shall the people of Israel suffer because of the actions of their elected leaders who are all criminals. This whole argument begins with the stealing of land in '48. And that is where the argument ends.
Posted by: NTY | October 30, 2009 at 09:09 AM
The problem for Israel that the Zionist never admit is one day the Arabs will have the means to destroy Israel. Since Israel was born in the blood of the Arabs who lived there they have a gripe that won't go away. If Hamas is supposed to give up its religious Jihad the Zionists have to give up their religious Jihad of a Jewish state. God did not give Israel to the Jews, the UN did at the request of the British who got tried of the Zionist terrorists blowing them up. Israel needs to reform itself and soon before it is to late.
Posted by: mfellion | October 30, 2009 at 11:20 AM
Democratic elections are no guarantee of "good government". Case in point: the election of Adolf Hitler. The West Bank and Hamas will probably eventually wither and die on the vine, as they say, from their own sheer political ineptitude. As with most of us, the Palestinians and Hamas are proving time and again to be their own worst enemies. That's one human quality we can always count on when it's needed the least.
Posted by: G. FORD | November 02, 2009 at 03:40 PM
Innocent victims... Why did they vote for Hamas ?
They had a choice? No ?
Posted by: Le brés | November 03, 2009 at 09:25 AM
The tide is turning...
http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/support-the-boycott-israel-campaign-1.522042
Posted by: JTL | November 07, 2009 at 12:02 PM
Israel should realize by now that after the embargo, war last winter, tunnel targetting has not weakened Hamas. The only solution to this is to sit and negotiate because the only victims here are the innocent civilians. Hamas is not great, either is Fatah or Israel's new government. The only solution to this conflict is to lift the embargo on Gaza, end the occupation in the west bank and remove the barriers and the Aparthied wall and stop all the ethnic cleansing on the Palestinians.
Posted by: Ali Dahmash | November 11, 2009 at 05:01 AM