JABALIYA, Gaza - "Gaza's economy
is expected to grow modestly and people will
likely still be worse off in 2015 compared to the
mid-1990s", reads a press release announcing the
United Nations' August 2012 report, "Gaza in 2020
A Liveable Place?" In the no-frills office of his
stalled Jabaliya clothing factory, Rizik
Al-Madhoun, 41, explains how his clothing factory
began shutting down six years ago.
"We
started in 1993 with seven sewing machines. By
2005, we
had 250 machines and as many
tailors," he says. "In 2006, after Hamas was
elected and Israel sealed the borders, we had to
close down half of the factory. We stopped all
production in 2007, when Israel tightened the
siege."
Madhoun's is one of the 97% of
industrial establishments in the Gaza Strip which
by 2008 had stopped production as a result of the
Israeli-led, internationally complicit closure of
Gaza's borders that limited imports and virtually
halted all exports. By December 2007, the UN had
already reported that only 1% of Gaza's 960
garment factories remained open.
Today, a
reported 80% of factories in Gaza are closed or
operating at minimum capability.
"Until
2005, our work was good," says Madhoun. "We made
shirts, pants, jeans, dresses, skirts, school
clothes ...we'd make whatever was in demand. Since
our clothes were high quality, 80% were exported
to Israeli markets, and some of these were then
exported to European markets."
His workers
were, Madhoun says, among 40,000 who worked as
tailors in Gaza.
"Before our factory
closed, I employed 250 high-quality tailors, as
well as another 100 who worked from home. Another
50 families worked from home, doing the final
touches and finishing work."
A tour
through the vast warehouse that was Madhoun's
factory reveals much now-unused space, with a few
rooms devoted to storing cheap imported clothing.
"Now we just have a large storage area.
There's no way we can run our factory, so instead
we sell these imports in Gaza markets."
Focusing on Gaza's siege-devastated
economy, the UN in June 2012 noted that "the
continued ban on the transfer of goods from Gaza
to its traditional markets in the West Bank and
Israel, along with the severe restrictions on
access to agricultural land and fishing waters,
prevents sustainable growth and perpetuates the
high levels of unemployment, food insecurity and
aid dependency."
Israeli-rights group
Gisha notes that 85% of Gaza's exports
traditionally went to Israeli and Palestinian
markets outside of Gaza. Gisha further notes that
any claims of security precautions being the
reason for prohibiting exports from Gaza hold no
weight.
"Recently a new scanner for
screening goods was installed at the crossing,"
wrote Gisha in June 2012. It said that Israeli
military officials "have said that the choice to
prevent sale of goods from Gaza in Israel and the
West Bank was made at the political echelon and
needs to be decided upon there."
The
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reports that
the amount of exports allowed to leave Gaza in
March 2012 were "1.28% of pre-closure numbers,"
with April exports at "0.85% of the pre-closure
numbers".
Gaza's unemployment rates hover
at between 35% to 65% (adults versus those in
their early 20s), and food-aid dependency remains
at 80%.
"An urban area cannot survive
without being connected," the UN's Maxwell Gaylard
stated on August 27, reiterating the necessity to
reopen Gaza's closed borders to trade.
"The area has been essentially isolated
since 2005," reads the UN press release, "meaning
that, in the longer term, its economy is
fundamentally unviable under present
circumstances. Gaza is currently kept alive
through external funding and the illegal tunnel
economy."
The United Nations' August
report finishes by insisting that, among other
things, the Palestinians of Gaza "must have ready
access to the world beyond Gaza for religious,
educational, medical, cultural, commercial and
other purposes."
Rizik al-Madhoun
simplifies the call: allow Gaza's exports out.
"Since we have so few options for work,
Gaza's tailors have perfected their crafts,"
Madhoun says. "We can make clothes as good as and
of better quality than the Turkish imports we get,
but without a market, there is no point in
producing goods."
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