Before the military coup in June 2007, traders from Gaza used to import all materials and equipment through Israeli ports. However, after the coup Israel removed the Gaza Strip Code from Israeli ports, making it impossible for importers from the Gaza Strip to import anything from abroad.
This action by Israel posed a threat to Gaza commercial agencies, leading to the closing down of their companies, because they haven't been able to manage any imports since mid-June 2007 and still. It seems that the Palestinian negotiators from Hamas were not interested in this issue when they dealt with the Calmness Agreement with Israel, while they were interested to open the crossings only, particularly Rafah. On the other hand, PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his team of negotiators with Israel also didn't pay enough attention to this very important case.
According to the Calmness Agreement, the Israeli side agreed to increase the quantities of materials to be imported to the Gaza Strip from Israel, as an attempt to contribute to the halt of huge inflation, taking into consideration that the annual GDP in the Gaza Strip is not exceeding $ 600, compared to about $ 1200 on the West Bank and to about $30000 in Israel. However, the Palestinian citizen in the Gaza Strip (before the war on Gaza that erupted on 27/12/2008) finds himself compelled to pay very high prices for many basic commodities and foodstuffs, medicine, fuel and milk compared to prices in Israel and in the West Bank. A certain kind of children's food sold in Gaza at a price of $6, can be bought on the West Bank for $3.5. Furthermore, the official price of one liter of gasoline is about 2 $, while in Gaza it is sold on the black market( smuggled from Egypt) at a price of $ 8 per liter.
Another serious violation of the agreement concerns the Gaza Fishermen. The Israeli Coast Guard Patrols forbid them to fish further than 3 miles off the shore, while it used to be 21 miles. According to a declaration by Mezan Human Rights Center in Gaza on 14/9/2008, the fishermen suffer from the continuous military abuse by the Israeli war ships. The harassment includes demolishing, the confiscating of goods, arresting fishermen, and shooting at the Palestinian boats, which in some cases caused damage of the boats and injuries among the fishermen.
According to www.Palpress.Ps on 14/9/2008, the number of Israeli violations against Palestinian fishermen in Gaza since the commencement of the Calmness Agreement came to 200. Such violations included the following :
• Partial damage of 20 boats
• Complete demolishing of 4 boats
• Confiscating 2 boats with all including equipment
• Detaining 10 fishermen
• Arresting 15 fishermen for interrogations
According to Ma'an News on 10/9/2008, the assistant Deputy Minister of National Economy, Mr. Nasser Sarraj, declared that Israel cut the quantity of containers carrying clothes and shoes on that date by 50% (15 instead of 30) without any prior notice. This action caused big losses to traders who already had the goods on the Israeli side of the borders of Gaza (costs of the goods and transportation had already been paid). What makes it worse is that the traders anticipated to sell these goods before the feast, at beginning of October 2008, an occasion when many Muslims buy new clothes and shoes.
There continued to be a lack of hard currency in Gaza, while local banks of the Gaza Strip were to obtain a special permit from the Israeli Defense Ministry each time they wished to bring bank notes from their branches in the West Bank to Gaza. Sometimes there also was a shortage of dollars and Jordanian dinars (all goods smuggled from Egypt were purchased with dollars).
During the revising of this report (23/12/2008) , there was an extreme shortage of Israeli shekels in cash in PA banks operating in the Gaza Strip. These banks were paying governmental salaries in dollars instead of the Israeli shekel. Also there was a reasonable amount of deteriorated Israeli bank notes, which needed to be changed from the central Bank of Israel, but Israel did not agree to that, even though the Israeli Shekel used in the Palestinian territories since 1967, is the official currency of Israel.
On 25/9/2008, the Israeli coordinator of Government Work in the Palestinian territories, Major General Amos Gila'ad, said that the promise to transfer $ 50 million shekels to the Gaza Strip recently, was aimed at preventing the collapse of the banking system (the Israeli Shekel bank notes arrived Gaza on 28/9/2008).
The parents of Israeli captive soldier Gila'ad Shalit had told the Israeli government a week before that the money would serve Hamas and the kidnappers of their son, in addition to the transfer of the money not being approved by the Cabinet yet (Voice of Israel) Amos Gila'ad explained in a letter sent to the parents of Shalit, that Defense Minister Barak approved the transfer of the money on 22/9/2008 after the study of the topic on a regular basis. He said rescue Gila'ad Shalit is still the main objective of the security departments in Israel.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights stressed in a report which covers the period from 9-16/7/2008 (Report 29/2008) the continued deadlock on all elements of the national economy, including trade, industry, construction, agriculture and services (IT, Engineering, tourism, restaurants, and hotels), while Gaza traders are not allowed to import any type of raw materials and oil derivatives, while Israel also prevents completely the export from the Gaza Strip to Israel and abroad (flowers, vegetables, furniture, garments & textiles). The border crossings continued to operate with the same capacity as they did before the Calmness, a rate of about 85 truck loads per day, while Gaza normally was importing about 750 truck loads of all types of materials per day before the military coup in June 2007.
Mr. John Ging, director of UNRWA operations in the Gaza Strip, stated on 24/7/2008 that after about 40 days of the Calmness Agreement, the economic situation had not improved in the Gaza Strip since Israel only marginally increased the allowed quantities of food and fuel, and did not allow the entry of raw materials and building materials.
The most important issues stated by Mr. Ging were the following.
• 52% of the Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip are living below the poverty line, compared to 19% in the West Bank.
• The unemployment rate in the Palestinian territories at end of December 2007 reached 29.5%, while it was 45.3% in the Gaza Strip and 22.5% in the West Bank. It is certain that such high rates of poverty and unemployment are not contributing to the maintaining of the Calmness Agreement.
• The complete stoppage of any type of investment and the cancellation of the construction of vital projects in the Gaza Strip are causing damage, especially where it concerns the construction of thousands of new residential houses and apartments for refugees and those who lost their homes due to the repeated Israeli incursions, especially in Rafah.
In addition to what Mr. Ging declared, tens of thousands have their interests damaged because they could not travel abroad, including the inability of Palestinian workers from abroad to visit their families in the Gaza Strip for fear of losing their jobs, as happened with others who came for vacation and couldn't go back.
At the end of November 2008, 77000 of Gaza governmental employees didn't receive their salaries , which comes to about 200 million Shekel per month. This amount is paid by the government of Ramallah every month since the take over in June 2007.
Everybody in Gaza was waiting for the salaries, due to the fact that the Grand Feast for Muslims (Eid – ElAdha) took place in the first week of December (8/12/2008). But with no salaries, the deteriorated economic situation had caused even more difficulties for every person in the Gaza Strip. The majority of the employees didn't buy new clothes for their kids, even they didn't buy a sheep to slaughter, which is a tradition during the feast, according to Islam.
Several traders prepared themselves, buying a lot of clothes and shoes smuggled from Egypt through the tunnels. These clothes and shoes couldn't be sold, however.
Even private sector employees and others couldn't withdraw their money deposited in the banks, to spend during the Feast, due to the sudden closure of all local banks on 4/12/2008. The reason was that the banks had no hard cash (bank notes), while the Israeli authorities didn't agree to transfer money from the West Bank to Gaza.
Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, stated on 10/12/2008 that he agreed to give permission to transfer only 100 million shekel from the West Bank to Gaza, taking into consideration that this sum would not be satisfactory, it being half of the required amount.
2. The Calmness and health issues
In spite of the Calmness Agreement, a European campaign to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip, led to a report on 16/7/2008, warning of a health catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, since it had been besieged for almost 3 years. It also warned that many medicines were not allowed in (370 types of medicine were on the verge of running out) and that drugs found in health warehouses of the Ministry of health would be satisfactory for 1-3 months only. The number of deprived patients who need treatment outside the Gaza Strip is growing day by day; the number of persons who died as a result of not being allowed to get treatment outside Gaza ( Israel – Egypt – Jordan) reached around 300 by the end of August.
The report also stated that the Rafah border crossing with Egypt remained closed for patients who needed treatment in Egypt and abroad. According to Mr. Khaled Radi, spokesman of the Ministry of Health of the deposed government, 1500 patients (and this number had been growing every day) in Gaza are in bad need of treatment, but are forbidden to cross the borders of The Gaza Strip to get treatment abroad.
Movement of medical personnel and patients from Gaza to Israel and the West Bank through Erez crossing had not changed after the Calmness Agreement, and the process of preventing many of them to leave for the West Bank, whether for business or for treatment, continued, as Gaza was considered as a hostile entity by Israel.
What is more, due to the strike of doctors and health employees in Gaza, which started on 30/8/2008, the health situation in Gaza became even worse.
3. The Calmness and education
The Calmness Agreement also didn't provide solutions to Palestinian students stuck in Gaza, whose number amounts to 2000. These students are prevented by Israel from leaving the Gaza Strip, either through Erez or through Rafah border crossing, to join their universities abroad.
A delegate from the campaign "Let Palestinian students learn" handed an appeal to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown during his visit to the Palestinian city of Bethlehem on 20/7/2008, requesting his contribution and support to lift the Israeli ban on travel for these students. Some of the students were already studying at British universities and some of them wanted to start a study there, taking into consideration that most of these students were accepted at the universities and already got the required visa to travel for study abroad.
The delegate reported in the appeal that preventing them from having the possibility to leave the Gaza Strip to join their universities would lead to unexpected results due to suffering and loss of hope.
What is more, due to the strike of teachers and the Ministry of Education employees in Gaza schools, which started on 28/8/2008, the education situation in Gaza was even more badly affected. Hamas made a statement on 14/10/2008, firing all the education employees who joined the strike.
This action by Israel posed a threat to Gaza commercial agencies, leading to the closing down of their companies, because they haven't been able to manage any imports since mid-June 2007 and still. It seems that the Palestinian negotiators from Hamas were not interested in this issue when they dealt with the Calmness Agreement with Israel, while they were interested to open the crossings only, particularly Rafah. On the other hand, PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his team of negotiators with Israel also didn't pay enough attention to this very important case.
According to the Calmness Agreement, the Israeli side agreed to increase the quantities of materials to be imported to the Gaza Strip from Israel, as an attempt to contribute to the halt of huge inflation, taking into consideration that the annual GDP in the Gaza Strip is not exceeding $ 600, compared to about $ 1200 on the West Bank and to about $30000 in Israel. However, the Palestinian citizen in the Gaza Strip (before the war on Gaza that erupted on 27/12/2008) finds himself compelled to pay very high prices for many basic commodities and foodstuffs, medicine, fuel and milk compared to prices in Israel and in the West Bank. A certain kind of children's food sold in Gaza at a price of $6, can be bought on the West Bank for $3.5. Furthermore, the official price of one liter of gasoline is about 2 $, while in Gaza it is sold on the black market( smuggled from Egypt) at a price of $ 8 per liter.
Another serious violation of the agreement concerns the Gaza Fishermen. The Israeli Coast Guard Patrols forbid them to fish further than 3 miles off the shore, while it used to be 21 miles. According to a declaration by Mezan Human Rights Center in Gaza on 14/9/2008, the fishermen suffer from the continuous military abuse by the Israeli war ships. The harassment includes demolishing, the confiscating of goods, arresting fishermen, and shooting at the Palestinian boats, which in some cases caused damage of the boats and injuries among the fishermen.
According to www.Palpress.Ps on 14/9/2008, the number of Israeli violations against Palestinian fishermen in Gaza since the commencement of the Calmness Agreement came to 200. Such violations included the following :
• Partial damage of 20 boats
• Complete demolishing of 4 boats
• Confiscating 2 boats with all including equipment
• Detaining 10 fishermen
• Arresting 15 fishermen for interrogations
According to Ma'an News on 10/9/2008, the assistant Deputy Minister of National Economy, Mr. Nasser Sarraj, declared that Israel cut the quantity of containers carrying clothes and shoes on that date by 50% (15 instead of 30) without any prior notice. This action caused big losses to traders who already had the goods on the Israeli side of the borders of Gaza (costs of the goods and transportation had already been paid). What makes it worse is that the traders anticipated to sell these goods before the feast, at beginning of October 2008, an occasion when many Muslims buy new clothes and shoes.
There continued to be a lack of hard currency in Gaza, while local banks of the Gaza Strip were to obtain a special permit from the Israeli Defense Ministry each time they wished to bring bank notes from their branches in the West Bank to Gaza. Sometimes there also was a shortage of dollars and Jordanian dinars (all goods smuggled from Egypt were purchased with dollars).
During the revising of this report (23/12/2008) , there was an extreme shortage of Israeli shekels in cash in PA banks operating in the Gaza Strip. These banks were paying governmental salaries in dollars instead of the Israeli shekel. Also there was a reasonable amount of deteriorated Israeli bank notes, which needed to be changed from the central Bank of Israel, but Israel did not agree to that, even though the Israeli Shekel used in the Palestinian territories since 1967, is the official currency of Israel.
On 25/9/2008, the Israeli coordinator of Government Work in the Palestinian territories, Major General Amos Gila'ad, said that the promise to transfer $ 50 million shekels to the Gaza Strip recently, was aimed at preventing the collapse of the banking system (the Israeli Shekel bank notes arrived Gaza on 28/9/2008).
The parents of Israeli captive soldier Gila'ad Shalit had told the Israeli government a week before that the money would serve Hamas and the kidnappers of their son, in addition to the transfer of the money not being approved by the Cabinet yet (Voice of Israel) Amos Gila'ad explained in a letter sent to the parents of Shalit, that Defense Minister Barak approved the transfer of the money on 22/9/2008 after the study of the topic on a regular basis. He said rescue Gila'ad Shalit is still the main objective of the security departments in Israel.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights stressed in a report which covers the period from 9-16/7/2008 (Report 29/2008) the continued deadlock on all elements of the national economy, including trade, industry, construction, agriculture and services (IT, Engineering, tourism, restaurants, and hotels), while Gaza traders are not allowed to import any type of raw materials and oil derivatives, while Israel also prevents completely the export from the Gaza Strip to Israel and abroad (flowers, vegetables, furniture, garments & textiles). The border crossings continued to operate with the same capacity as they did before the Calmness, a rate of about 85 truck loads per day, while Gaza normally was importing about 750 truck loads of all types of materials per day before the military coup in June 2007.
Mr. John Ging, director of UNRWA operations in the Gaza Strip, stated on 24/7/2008 that after about 40 days of the Calmness Agreement, the economic situation had not improved in the Gaza Strip since Israel only marginally increased the allowed quantities of food and fuel, and did not allow the entry of raw materials and building materials.
The most important issues stated by Mr. Ging were the following.
• 52% of the Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip are living below the poverty line, compared to 19% in the West Bank.
• The unemployment rate in the Palestinian territories at end of December 2007 reached 29.5%, while it was 45.3% in the Gaza Strip and 22.5% in the West Bank. It is certain that such high rates of poverty and unemployment are not contributing to the maintaining of the Calmness Agreement.
• The complete stoppage of any type of investment and the cancellation of the construction of vital projects in the Gaza Strip are causing damage, especially where it concerns the construction of thousands of new residential houses and apartments for refugees and those who lost their homes due to the repeated Israeli incursions, especially in Rafah.
In addition to what Mr. Ging declared, tens of thousands have their interests damaged because they could not travel abroad, including the inability of Palestinian workers from abroad to visit their families in the Gaza Strip for fear of losing their jobs, as happened with others who came for vacation and couldn't go back.
At the end of November 2008, 77000 of Gaza governmental employees didn't receive their salaries , which comes to about 200 million Shekel per month. This amount is paid by the government of Ramallah every month since the take over in June 2007.
Everybody in Gaza was waiting for the salaries, due to the fact that the Grand Feast for Muslims (Eid – ElAdha) took place in the first week of December (8/12/2008). But with no salaries, the deteriorated economic situation had caused even more difficulties for every person in the Gaza Strip. The majority of the employees didn't buy new clothes for their kids, even they didn't buy a sheep to slaughter, which is a tradition during the feast, according to Islam.
Several traders prepared themselves, buying a lot of clothes and shoes smuggled from Egypt through the tunnels. These clothes and shoes couldn't be sold, however.
Even private sector employees and others couldn't withdraw their money deposited in the banks, to spend during the Feast, due to the sudden closure of all local banks on 4/12/2008. The reason was that the banks had no hard cash (bank notes), while the Israeli authorities didn't agree to transfer money from the West Bank to Gaza.
Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, stated on 10/12/2008 that he agreed to give permission to transfer only 100 million shekel from the West Bank to Gaza, taking into consideration that this sum would not be satisfactory, it being half of the required amount.
2. The Calmness and health issues
In spite of the Calmness Agreement, a European campaign to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip, led to a report on 16/7/2008, warning of a health catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, since it had been besieged for almost 3 years. It also warned that many medicines were not allowed in (370 types of medicine were on the verge of running out) and that drugs found in health warehouses of the Ministry of health would be satisfactory for 1-3 months only. The number of deprived patients who need treatment outside the Gaza Strip is growing day by day; the number of persons who died as a result of not being allowed to get treatment outside Gaza ( Israel – Egypt – Jordan) reached around 300 by the end of August.
The report also stated that the Rafah border crossing with Egypt remained closed for patients who needed treatment in Egypt and abroad. According to Mr. Khaled Radi, spokesman of the Ministry of Health of the deposed government, 1500 patients (and this number had been growing every day) in Gaza are in bad need of treatment, but are forbidden to cross the borders of The Gaza Strip to get treatment abroad.
Movement of medical personnel and patients from Gaza to Israel and the West Bank through Erez crossing had not changed after the Calmness Agreement, and the process of preventing many of them to leave for the West Bank, whether for business or for treatment, continued, as Gaza was considered as a hostile entity by Israel.
What is more, due to the strike of doctors and health employees in Gaza, which started on 30/8/2008, the health situation in Gaza became even worse.
3. The Calmness and education
The Calmness Agreement also didn't provide solutions to Palestinian students stuck in Gaza, whose number amounts to 2000. These students are prevented by Israel from leaving the Gaza Strip, either through Erez or through Rafah border crossing, to join their universities abroad.
A delegate from the campaign "Let Palestinian students learn" handed an appeal to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown during his visit to the Palestinian city of Bethlehem on 20/7/2008, requesting his contribution and support to lift the Israeli ban on travel for these students. Some of the students were already studying at British universities and some of them wanted to start a study there, taking into consideration that most of these students were accepted at the universities and already got the required visa to travel for study abroad.
The delegate reported in the appeal that preventing them from having the possibility to leave the Gaza Strip to join their universities would lead to unexpected results due to suffering and loss of hope.
What is more, due to the strike of teachers and the Ministry of Education employees in Gaza schools, which started on 28/8/2008, the education situation in Gaza was even more badly affected. Hamas made a statement on 14/10/2008, firing all the education employees who joined the strike.
