Last year, in an interview with Egypt's "Al-Akbar" newspaper, Abbas said that the destruction of the tunnels was the best solution to prevent Gazans from using the smuggling business for their own benefits. He then spoke about 1,800 Gazans becoming millionaires as a result of the tunnel trade, although no corroboration for this specific number was ever divulged.
Of course, Abbas has rarely been concerned about the rising fortunes of the alleged "millionaires," because his Authority, which subsists on international handouts, is rife with them. His grievance is with Hamas, which has been regulating tunnel trade and taxing merchants for the goods they import into the Strip. Not only were the tunnels a lifeline for Gaza's economy, the underground business helped fill a void in Hamas' own budget, a fact that has annoyed Abbas for years.
Following Hamas' election victory in January 2006 and the bloody clash between the new Government and Abbas' Fatah faction, Hamas has experienced immense pressure: Israel launched three massive and deadly wars, while maintaining a strict siege; Egypt ensured the near permanent closure of its border, and Abbas continued to pay the salaries for tens of thousands of his supporters in Gaza, on the condition that they did not join the Hamas Government.
Moreover, the so-called "Arab Spring," the turmoil in Egypt and the war in Syria, in particular, lessened Hamas' chances of escaping the financial stranglehold that made governing Gaza, broken by war and fatigued by the siege, nearly unviable.
Life in Gaza became impossible, to the extent that the UN Conference on Trade and Development released a report last September warning that Gaza could become "uninhabitable" in less than five years, if current economic trends continue.
But these economic trends are the result of intentional policies, mostly centered on achieving political ends. Moreover, none of these ends have been achieved after nearly a decade of experimentation. True, many have died as they waited to receive proper medical care and thousands perished in war; many of the maimed cannot acquire the basic necessity of wheelchairs, let alone prosthetics, but Israel has not managed to stop the Resistance, Egypt has quelled the rebellion in Sinai nor has Abbas regained his lost factional stronghold.
And, things are getting much worse for Gaza. The World Bank issued a report earlier this year stating that 43% of Gaza's population are unemployed, and that unemployment among the youth has reached 60%. According to the report, these unemployment figures are the highest in the world.
When Taghreed goes on her photography spree in Gaza City, she wears her favorite black dress and checkered headscarf. She is captivated by old people for, unlike the young, frustrated by their confinement and yet unable to channel their anger and energy, the old just sit outside their homes and gaze at the passerbys. They watch their misery unfold, as they have for decades. This time however, their hardship is not only the work of Israel, but that of their Arab "brothers" as well.
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