Posted on 03/18/2006 9:54:37 PM PST by SmithL
NETZARIM, Gaza Strip -- The harvest is underway inside a row of greenhouses here on the grounds of a razed Israeli settlement. But most of the tomatoes and sweet peppers, usually shipped to European markets, will rot in a nearby ravine.
"We keep getting it, but we don't know what to do with it," said Abdul Fatah al-Eilah, the greenhouse manager, as workers stacked boxes of vegetables in a storage shed while tractors towing flatbeds full of produce lined up to enter.
The main trade passage between the Gaza Strip and Israel has been closed for much of the year, despite an agreement brokered by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in November that required Israel to "ensure the continued opportunity to export." Israeli security concerns, heightened by Hamas's parliamentary victory in January and the almost daily rocket fire from Gaza, have rendered the deal largely moot.
To protect Gaza's small farmers from competition by Eilah's Palestine Economic Development Corp. and its 1,000 acres of greenhouses, the corporation is barred from selling its produce locally. But without regular access to the outside world, the corporation has had to donate some produce to local charities and dump the rest. Losses so far add up to millions of dollars.
"The government will likely have to give this away," Eilah said of an operation once considered the key to Gaza's economic future.
The lost harvest is the most recognizable sign of Gaza's declining fortunes six months after Israel's evacuation. It is also a telling indicator of Israel's evolving policy toward the Palestinian territories as Hamas, known formally as the Islamic Resistance Movement and at war with the Jewish state, prepares to take political power.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Well, they've made their choice.
Let them eat tomatoes.
If Scott Wilson would report the news instead of the propaganda, we all would be better informed. I just returned from Israel and Palestine two weeks ago. The reason that Israel has closed the crossing is because terrorists have used the crossing to enter Israel and conduct terrorist bombings. Scott writes "This year, the crossing has been closed more often than not because of Israeli security concerns." I wonder how he would write had his town been bombed? Moreover, he fails to alert the reader that "anonymous foreign donors" bought these farms from the departing Israeli settlers because the Palestinians refused to pay for them lest they fund their enemies. Now Scott worries because the Israelis won't let terrorists use the the border crossing to wage war. Oh, excuse me, he doesn't quite write his story that way . . . .
Gee...that's too bad...NOT.
Tomatoes where I live are selling for two bucks a pound. I'd sure like to have a basket of those.
No kidding, a BLT with those sounds good to me.
Right now all my wife and I can get look and taste like crap.
So why create a smelly worthless garbage heap? Shouldn't they have separated out the plastic and composted the tomatoes? The Palestinians seem to have what I call a "ghetto mentality". Because reality refuses to conform to their requirements, they seek their revenge on the world by deliberately making things worse for no reason but for spite, even if it results in further harm to themselves in the process.
You are so correct. Just another example of completely irresponsible reporting from the left. Is this guy ignorant or blatantly distorting the truth? (probably both)
Hmmmm... the last time I looked, Israel had pulled out of Gaza. So who is responsible for it now? Still Israel? How does that work?
There's not one mention that Hamas, Fatah, the PA (a.k.a. the terrorists), the "foreign donors", and all the profoundly clueless appeasers could ever be a teensy weensy bit responsible for the "plight of the Palestinian people" (I have been hearing that phrase since I was in grade school).
Gag me with a spoon.
Good post reb, can I ask what you were doing in Israel and Palestine? HOw you found things there and did you have any problems?
The farms as I heard it were purchased mostly by American private contributions. A great opportunity for the palis who instead of asking for assistance to run them and feed their fellow palis simply looted much of the equipment and pawned it.
Couldn't ask the Jews for help and maybe build bridges.
Cause market tomatos are picked green shipped then gassed at the right time to sell.
Grow you own and pick them ripe, nothing better.
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All of Gaza will be a garbage heap soon enough. They demand the right to export products from seized Israeli facilities to generate revenue for terrorist strikes
These people are so stone age that proper composting and reuse of resources is in their future, not the present. To the average palisavage resources come from the UN, not work and proper land-use.
I personally would have detonated a rather large explosive and not allowed my assets to fall into the hands of an enemy force; even the Russian peasants knew this in the 40's.
Let the bastards starve.
Oh, darn, I read this 'Left (as in, lefties) to rot in Gaza.'
Wasn’t the last sob story from Gaza that everybody was starving because of Israel? These nitwits are wasting good food. Take this produce into Gaza City and sell it, or give it away.
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