Open the Gaza border already

For crying out loud, it's a million plus people, not sock puppets. People in the West are always complaining that the Palestinians don't pursue prosperity and capitalism and so forth, yet these critics sit around like dummies while a million people who are trying to feed their families and go to work - regardless of which government is in charge - are sealed off. If Abbas and Israel can't figure out a way to open the border for exports right away, we are supposed to have confidence that they can solve, oh, like you know, difficult problems?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/world/middleeast/18cnd-mideast.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

JERUSALEM, July 18 – Gaza’s already weak economy could collapse unless the main commercial crossing between Gaza and Israel is reopened, Gaza businessmen and United Nation officials said today.

The Karni crossing has been shut since June 12 because the Fatah -affiliated Palestinians who operated it fled after Hamas took over Gaza in bloody fighting. But both Israel and the Fatah leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, have been in no hurry to help Hamas by working to regularize Gaza’s economic life.

Karen AbuZayd, who is the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which deals with Palestinian refugees, said in an interview: “Without Karni the Gaza economy will collapse unless it is opened for exports and not just for imports, so we don’t punish this whole people.”

snip

Some commercial goods for grocery stores are now being imported through deals between Israeli suppliers and Gazan merchants. But imports of building materials like concrete for construction and raw materials for factories have been held up, throwing Gazans out of work.

More than 68,000 workers have lost their jobs since mid-June, which represents more than 80 percent of the private sector employment, said Nasser al-Hilou, a prominent Gazan businessman. U.N.R.W.A. halted $93 million worth of construction projects for lack of building materials, and put workers on leave.

More importantly, perhaps, even if factories can produce, they cannot export. Gaza is full of vegetables and flowers grown for export markets that are being sold cheaply or are rotting.

“There is no starvation in Gaza, but there is no prosperity or life in Gaza either,” Mr. Hilou said. “Gaza needs trade, not aid.”