Al Jazeera English: VIDEO: Gaza's thriving tunnel economy

[SealLion]

Here's an article about the underground economy that, I think, may also hold some interesting ideas about this particular troubled regiion.

First, read this:

While Israel maintains its blockade around the Gaza Strip, tunnels used for smuggling goods continue to provide a lifeline for the beseiged people living there.

According to World Bank officials, 80 per cent of Gaza’s imports currently come through the tunnels, which has only increased the worth of Gaza's tunnel smuggling economy from $30 million in 2006 to $650 million in 2007.

However, rampant smuggling makes the price of basic goods almost unbearable for the average Gazan.

Here's the link to the 2 min. video:

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Gaza's thriving tunnel economy

Pretty unfortunate, yes??
People having to pay sky-high prices b/c of a blockade by the Israelis.

Can't blame the Palestinians for re-acting like that to the presence of the wall. It's not them who built the wall, It's the Israeli government, of which the construction of said wall was coordinated by it's military too, by-the-way.
....which is nothing but a great big land grab.

A land grab for the future expansion of the Israeli border.

And of course, because of the wall, from what I understand (last years statistics ), about 70 % of pregnant Palestinian women who crossed through the gates leading from Gaza over to the Israeli side of the wall had their babies right there.

Right in that area where the gates are.

And apparently, just shy of 15% of those women, miscarriaged.

So on with some speculation now....

Ok. So after watching the short video news broadcast there, consider this.

There's a tunnel, yes??

Where else are tunnels to be found??

For one thing, in North Korea and it's been known for quite some years that those tunnels were used for bringing in soldiers over to the other side in a potential war (Heaven forbid)

I think that it's possible that some Gazans also use that same tunnel, or tunnels, for going over to the other side of the wall to do their destructive work.

And of course, that only leads to exacerbate the current problem there. I'm not condoning terrorism and I don't think anyone in his right mind would do so, but it's a possibility.
Hopefully, it's not.

However, the news broadcast from AFE didn't say so. It spoke only of the smuggling going on there. But, there's always room for possibilities, yes??

[slikrapid]

According to World Bank officials, 80 per cent of Gaza’s imports currently come through the tunnels, which has only increased the worth of Gaza's tunnel smuggling economy from $30 million in 2006 to $650 million in 2007.

now lets think about this one - if there's no (or almost no) income for ordinary people in the gaza strip, how come the worth of smuggled goods is increasing - one would expect them to fall, because the money is running out in the first place, so people are visiting the markets less often (thus lowering their purchases), also the israelis are constantly trying to find the tunnels by demolishing neighboring palestinian houses (imo it takes more time to build a tunnel than to find one), so something is false with these statements, last but not least, check out who is the source of these statements

also if you check out wikipedia on the subject you'll notice that 90% of information on the tunnels is about smuggling weapons which is ridiculous since the people in gaza need food & medicine more than they need weapons (there is no full blown war there and no one seriously thinks they would go out trying to regain their land by attacking the superior israeli military) - this is yet another warning sign about how wikipedia is actually spreading/allowing a certain propaganda on its supposedly impartial information site

as a side note, the title of the article is misleading, there's no 'thriving' economy there (more like a desperate one)

considering smuggling in general, it happens all over the world - wherever exists a demand for something not legally allowed you can bet that someone will try to smuggle it or even start a smuggling operation

a more extreme view:

legal smuggling = trading
illegal trading = smuggling

I'm not condoning terrorism and I don't think anyone in his right mind would do so, but it's a possibility.

imo the palestinans can in (almost) no way benefit from terrorist-style attacks as the israelis don't need many excuses to launch an attack and are able to inflict far more damage & casualties, so no sane palestinian politician would take 'the terrorist route' (naturally, extremist groups are largely a liability) - their best course of action is to go into political/media/humanitarian/diplomatic battles for the world to start acting & providing some help to the suffering people & resolving this overdue conflict - israel may have significant military power & backup in the usa & throughout the world, but it still is no match for a persistent world majority in general (some minority may be in control, making smart strategic moves, but that doesn't change the fact they are still a minority, so they are well aware that pissing of the majority is not advisable )

[SealLion]

if Israel pisses of the majority of the world, IHMO, they're not going to care in the least bit.

From Israels perspective, at least as I would see it, Israel doesn't care a crumb for whether it pisses of the majority of the world, let alone the Palestinians.

Israel is gaurded to much by countries like the US and the Uk.

There may be some tolerated behavior in the UN towards Israel and Jewish people, but Israel still isn't going to give a damn whether it steps on the toes of Palestinians or not.

their 700 km long wall is going to make sure of that. The fact that they control access to the settlements and into Israel is going to make sure of that.

the wall was built to ensure against terrorist attacks. That's something that I can understand. But there's other ways to deal with such problems.

How about giving the Palestinians some land to live on for a change??

The wall is, like I've said already before, a great big land grab.

So for the tunnels to be there, I can see the logic of that. As the wall continues it's construction, those tunnels are going to be harder and harder to build as the land on the Israeli side of the wall, in the rural areas at least, is going to expand.

You can't build a tunnel that's in a rural area where it's safe to have a tunnel exit that's 2 km from the wall.
I don't know about the urban areas. I am sure that those tunnels will continue to be exposed.

As for the economy and the 'thriving economy vs a desperate economy', I can give one explanation here. The fact is that Palestinians need to work to earn a living, yes??
They have money.
They need money to spend so that they're families stay young and healthy and fresh and all that....
Well, that's my explanation on the thriving economy vs a desperate econonmy

As for the Palestinians pissing off the Israelis, they can't.
Just like you say.
It's clear that they do have Arab allies. But those allies can't do much either.
Jordan won't. S
yria won't b/c if it shows any further interest on Palestine's side, it'll be the next invasion ground. Just as was speculated right after the US invaded Iraq.

It'll be seen that Syria is harboring terrorists and so forth. Never mind that it's all just a big ploy for oil, land acquisition, and a theater of greater interests for unseen people in unseen positions of power.

Already, news agencies like AJE and people that are from Israel, who are speaking out about the rights abuses and other war crimes and wrongs committed by Israel against Palestinians, are making a dent in the information war in this whole debate.

Groups like Reporters Without Borders and other independant journalists are also reporting on issues like this making issues in Palestine heard to those who hear nothing but biased news from western and local news agencies.
Western governments also need to listen and stop hearing the special interest groups from Israel and rightest Christian groups.

I'm not targeting Christian groups as a whole, only those who have their heads in the wrong places because they feel some allegiance to Israel and it's heritage faith with Judaism.
And then there's the greatbigyoucan'tshowmedownbecauseI'vegotlotsandlot sofmoneytothrowaroundtothepoliticians pro-Israeli groups.
Money talks.
So do the people in the higher places that you never know about.

This is why there's always more than 1 side to the coin.

[slikrapid]

if Israel pisses of the majority of the world, IHMO, they're not going to care in the least bit.

actually i would say they do care about their public image since they are trying to use every means possible to portray their actions as legal and reasonable to the outside world - otherwise, for example, they wouldn't bother to come up with those laws in order to acquire palestinian land - they would've just conquered/seized it, banished/enslaved/exterminated the palestinians and be done with it

actually, according to their religious beliefs (talmud) they are allowed to harm other non-jews (aka gentiles) as long as they aren't caught doing it

there is also a saying to this:

let sleeping dogs/lions lie or
don't wake a sleeping giant

the wall was built to ensure against terrorist attacks. That's something that I can understand. But there's other ways to deal with such problems.

there may be other hidden reasons for the wall:

The wall serves purposes that go way beyond any Israeli security needs. The wall consolidates Israel's illegal settlements through the (again) illegal confiscation of land. The wall severs the ties of thousands of Palestinians from their homes, schools, families, towns, farms, and water. Future stages of the wall, carefully held secret by the Israeli government but discerned by the careful examination of military land confiscation orders (and reported upon by B'tselem, the Israeli human rights organization), indicate that the final stages of the wall are planned to completely surround the Palestinians and divide them into cantons and ghettos, permanent prisoners and refugees in their own land. The final stages of the wall don't even get close to Israel's own border on the Green line.

http://www.auphr.org/thewall/

The fact is that Palestinians need to work to earn a living, yes??
They have money.
They need money to spend...

the question is: where are they supposed to get the needed money (surely not from the israelis) and afaik they were never a 'rich' nation in the first place - imo the only ones who may be thriving are the smugglers that have the needed goods in the first place

As for the Palestinians pissing off the Israelis, they can't.

well, the mere palestinian annoying existence pisses 'em off

I'm not targeting Christian groups as a whole, only those who have their heads in the wrong places because they feel some allegiance to Israel and it's heritage faith with Judaism.

yeah, they all feel as some kind of chosen people supported by the dogmatic belief that their religion is the only right one, but fail to realize facts like that all their religions are actually derivatives or variations of other, much older beliefs, founded by ancient civilizations before them, essentially based on astrology, cosmic events & constellations with a dominant worship of the sun

if you're interested, check out this video:

Jordan Maxwell: Astrotheology

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9072629460246678761&hl=en#