"Gaza Is Not Darfur!"

[oberliner]

GAZA CITY—Aid officials in Gaza all recite the same statistics: "44 percent unemployment, 80 percent food-aid dependent, and 60 percent living on less than $2 a day." It sounds like a script they've grown tired of delivering to passing journalists.

After multiple rounds of similar briefings, I'm staring at Kamla Joudah's parlor in Nuseirat refugee camp, in the middle of the Gaza Strip. The warm beige tones of the furniture reflect the heat, and the walls gleam. The frequently cut power is on today, so the fan whirls. Tea and coffee are brought out on a small tray.

Kamla catches me appraising her home. "What are you looking at?" she asks, with some pique.

"Your house," I reply, "It's very nice."

She looks at me quizzically, "This is not Darfur," she snaps. The family members in the room burst out laughing as I blush.

The oft-recited statistics paint a bleak picture of life in the territory. But Gaza is a lot more complicated than the numbers suggest.

Comments like Kamla's are common here; everyone I speak to insists the coastal enclave is nothing like Somalia, Bangladesh, or the Democratic Republic of Congo. And people are indignant that I suggested it might be in the same league as those places.

http://www.slate.com/id/2262805/

[shira]

1. I wonder how this writer got the impression things were worse than they really are in Gaza? N/T

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. They have been listening the media?

[Chulanowa]

3. Doesn't play too well to your memes either

Armed oppressive militia groups bending the citizenry over barrels at every turn are all characteristics of, oh, Darfur, Somalia, Congo...

"When Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007"
:eyes: She must mean "when Hamas put down a Fatah coup underwritten by Israel in 2007, after it won elections in 2006"

"Inability to access quality care is a crisis, inability for people to produce and have access to jobs is a crisis, inability of people to get the quality of education that they are used to is a crisis, and above all a crisis of dignity—a crisis of humanity," Daher tells me.

Gaza's infrastructure problems are plentiful. The sewage system is busted, pumping 100 million liters of half-processed waste into the Mediterranean daily, according to a U.N. spokesman. Drinking water is not properly desalinized. The continued ban on the importation of raw materials has stymied Gaza's construction and industrial sector, contributing to unemployment. (Israel believes Hamas will use the materials to build bunkers from which to attack it.) Hospital equipment is outdated. Limits on exports have shut down large parts of the agricultural sector. The list goes on. "

But so long as we don't actually call it the H-word, then it's not! Huge unemployment, deep poverty, sewage in the drinking water, poor medical care in outdated and damaged hospitals, no materials to rebuild with, but that's okay.

They have a mall, after all!

That BS aside (really, what gets into some people?) the article is hardly a defense of your position of everything being gumdrops and daffodils in Gaza, Shira.

[Riftaxe]

4. List Prolific Fatah members who are still alive

or their family members, thanks in advance.

even worse, list those who have not had sons or daughters killed since the "revolution"...but i am not being kind, and i do apologize for that.

[Chulanowa]

5. What?

Could you rephrase the question in some way that makes sense? While you're at it, why not make your point, as well?

[shira]

6. Some facts for you to ponder.

1. You mentioned this Fatah 'coup' of 2007. The PA was internationally recognized as being in control of security in Gaza via agreements with Israel. Just because Hamas won electoral representation doesn't mean they had any right to illegally control Gaza with their own militia. Only the PA was internationally recognized to control security in the West Bank through military means. It wasn't a 'coup'.

2. Hamas has created much more than a mall. You must have missed all the photos of luxury hotels, restaurants, resorts, spas and water parks. In fact, Hamas has demonstrated that their priorities aren't in order and that had they really wanted to address infrastructure and the water system instead of focusing on luxuries or building up their weaponry, they could.

3. Do you realize for how long - or for how many years prior to the blockade - the situation in Gaza was described as a humanitarian crisis or on the brink of such a crisis? Seriously. This is pre-Intifada 2 with open borders, no checkpoints, open port, etc. I challenge you to do a little research in this area.

Here's what my search gave me...
http://www.google.com/search?q=gaza+humanitarian+crisis&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&sa=X&ei=FI5eTOvqBoGdlgert_2ZCA&ved=0CBcQpwU&source=lnt&tbs=nws%3A1%2Ccdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A1%2F1%2F1990%2Ccd_max%3A12%2F31%2F2000