Home > Olives & Thorns > Archives > 2008 > May > 22 > Entry
Running on fumes in Gaza.
Maher’s car is supposed to run on diesel, but it doesn’t. It runs on propane. That is not unusual in the Gaza Strip.
Gasoline and diesel have become scarce in Gaza as a result of Israeli sanctions and a strike by Palestinian fuel distributors and, Israel claims, hording by Hamas. As a result, there is a booming business adapting car engines to run on household cooking oil or propane that is normally used for gas stoves. (Many Palestinians now cook over burning scraps of wood or garbage.) Vegetable oil exhaust smells particularly bad.
Problem is, cars can’t travel too far before needing a new propane canister or more vegetable oil. Good thing the Gaza Strip is a small place.
He apologized profusely in formal Arabic. I told him not to worry. It was perfectly normal, I insisted.
We pushed his car back to his house, with the help of neighborhood kids. His father emerged in a tunic and called me an honored guest.
Maher switched out the propane tank in the trunk and we were on our way.
“I used to make clothing in Israel,” he told me. “My father, as well.” Gaza’s economy was once closely tied to its Jewish neighbor, but since Israel has sealed the borders of the tiny, overcrowded territory, in an attempt to pressure Hamas to stop rocket attacks — so far without success — unemployment has soared.
“We can’t live except by working in Israel,” Maher said. “The two countries are linked together.”
Near the crossing, we stopped at a gas station where a line of 100 or more Palestinians with their empty propane canisters had been waiting since morning. The gas station was waiting for a fuel shipment from Israel. It hadn’t yet come.
Maher left the empty canister with his brother, who had a place in line, and took me to the crossing.
Comments
By Naftali
May 22, 2008 1:05 PM | Link to this
They seem to have enough fuel to drive a truck full of explosives at the crossings where fuel and other supplies are delivered.
By Naftali
May 22, 2008 1:08 PM | Link to this
They seem to have enough fuel to drive a truck full of explosives at the crossings where fuel and other supplies are delivered.
AS well, unemployment in Gaza did not start with Israel closing the crossings. It started with Arafat choosing terror over peace after the Oslo accords. You can;t fire rockets at Israel every day, attempt homicide bombings on a regular basis, and then expect to work in Israel
By Stephen
May 23, 2008 3:53 PM | Link to this
I’m sure Joe Propane detailed in this article has shot lots of rockets at Israel. Whatever.
Reality check: Israel has between 10 to 20 years to survive until the Arab Israelis outpopulate the Jewish Israelis. If the Jews hold onto the Knesset, it’s apartheid all over again. Israel needs a peaceful neighbor or it will cease to exist as a Jewish state. End of story.
The embargo has done nothing to secure Israel from daily rocket attacks, as you say yourself. Israel would be better off doing like the Americans in Iraq, paying the militia members not to attack, while the leaders work on a political solution.
Israel will have to give up a LOT to get Palestinians to forego a Right of Return, but it’s worth it as its very survival is at stake. Peace through compromise is the only way for Israel to survive the 21st century.
By Stephen
May 23, 2008 3:57 PM | Link to this
Re: Arafat. Yeah, you’re right he sold out the Palestinians when he ditched Oslo. The Nobel Prize committee was a little premature in giving the gluttonous Arafat a peace prize before Oslo was secured. Idiots.
That was over ten years ago, now. Peace must be made in th present, with forgiveness for the wounds of the past, or it cannot survive.