http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=114631#axzz0nKD3Kuy3
Gaza's smokers forced to cough up cash as Hamas seeks income
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Saturday, May 08, 2010
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Patrick Moser
Agence France Presse
GAZA CITY: Gazans are trapped in their overcrowded strip by an Israeli blockade
and are still struggling with the aftermath of war, but their anger today is
directed at the Hamas rulers for taxing their smokes.
Many see the new tax imposed on cigarettes smuggled from Egypt as a sign the
Islamists are in deep financial trouble in the Palestinian territory that
essentially survives on aid and a black market economy.
"Egypt has stopped the money from coming in [and] Hamas now badly needs money
to pay salaries," said a local journalist, an inveterate smoker, who asked not
to be named.
Since Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of Israel, seized power in
the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel and Egypt have imposed a tight blockade,
allowing in only essential and humanitarian goods.
Hundreds of tunnels that dot the border with Egypt have served to bring in
other commercial goods - anything from motorbikes to Marlboros - as well as
weapons and cash.
But Egypt has recently cracked down on the smuggling, dealing a strong blow to
Hamas, which is boycotted by most banks because it is considered a terrorist
organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union.
Hamas has made it clear that it plans to gradually impose sales taxes on a wide
range of items in order to address the financial crisis.
"Everybody is angry," says Hassan Abu al-Kass, pointing to the stamp that shows
the smokes he sells from a tiny street stall have been taxed.
The three-shekel sales tax ($0.8, 0.60 euros) sent the price of a pack soaring
by about 60 percent.
"Sales are down, people can't afford such prices," says Kass. A small crowd
gathers around him, expressing outrage over the tax and lashing out - albeit
quietly - at Hamas.
One of Gaza's political factions recently warned in rare public criticism of
the Islamists that there would be an "explosion" if Hamas continues collecting
the new taxes.
Battling power outages that leave Gaza in the dark for hours on end, Hamas is
also trying to get people to pay their electricity bills, something many
residents haven't done for years.
Gaza gets about 70 percent of its electricity through power lines from Israel
and five percent from Egypt, with the rest produced by the territory's sole
power plant that relies on industrial fuel imports from Israel.
That plant has been working at only a fraction of its capacity since Israel
imposed the blockade, receiving only 2.2 million liters of fuel a week, as
opposed to the 3.5 million liters it needs.
Gazans have long been used to power cuts, but the outages have become longer
and more frequent since the European Commission stopped funding fuel purchases
in November.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, dominated by President Mahmoud
Abbas's Fatah - the arch-foe of Hamas - is now in charge of buying the fuel,
and supplies have dropped significantly.
In March, a weekly average of 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel were
imported into Gaza. That figure dropped to about one million liters in the last
week of April.
The shortfall has been blamed on animosity between Hamas and Fatah, but also on
a failure by consumers to pay their bills.
The Gaza Electricity Corporation (GEDCO) says it has monthly sales of about 50
million shekels ($13.4 million, 10 million euros) but collects only about 35 to
40 percent of the bill.
The accrued arrears of municipalities alone amounted to 413.5 million shekels
($110.8 million, 83.3 million euros) by January, according to GEDCO.
"People haven't been paying, Hamas hasn't been paying, municipalities haven't
been paying," says Yaser Alwadeya, a Gaza industrialist and independent
politician, who has pushed for Hamas to tackle the issue urgently.
In recent weeks, municipal employees have been going door-to-door to collect
well-overdue payments, sometimes backed by police and technicians ready to cut
off anyone who doesn't pay up.
But the power outages are still lengthy and frequent, affecting just about
every sector of life from industrial plants to fishmongers, from sanitation
facilities to reconstruction efforts.
And Gaza's blockade-ravaged economy was not much to start off with.
"Nothing works properly: water is not drinkable, there's barely any
electricity, there are no services and banks have no money available," says
Alwadeya, who says he is among the few business leaders left in Gaza.
Alwadeya's company was once the largest food maker in Gaza, but much of his
production line was reduced to rubble by Israel's devastating three-week
offensive launched in December 2008.
He paints a bleak picture of the situation in the narrow coastal enclave. "We
no longer have an economy in Gaza. Just dealers from tunnels."
The blockade has left many Gazans struggling to eke out a living, and 80
percent of the 1.5 million population depend on food aid.
Fishermen, prevented by Israeli gunboats from venturing more than five
kilometers out to sea, now sail to the southern border to buy Egyptian
fishermen's catch. Some fish is also brought in through the tunnels.
Farmers risk their lives when they venture into fields near the border wall.
Citing the risk of militant attacks, Israel regularly opens fire on anyone
getting to close to the boundary.
The risk does not deter hundreds of people who scavenge for construction
materials among the ruined buildings by Gaza's northern border with Israel,
using horse-drawn carts to carry their heavy loads.
The closer they get to the border wall, the better the materials, and the
higher the risk of getting shot.
A little farther back, a cloud of dust rises from a spot where dozens of people
collect pebbles that will be crushed and mixed into concrete.
"It's hard work, it's dangerous," says 12-year-old Motaz as he sifts through
the sand just a few hundred meters from the border.
Asked if he'd rather be at school, he mops his brow with a corner of his dusty
Mickey Mouse T-shirt, adjusts his red baseball cap and shrugs.
"We need the money."
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