Monthly Archives: July 2010

Not your average trip to the mall

The media last week heralded the opening of the first shopping mall in Gaza and immediately the blogosphere was atwitter. Some saw it as proof of the easing of the closure, which Israel had promised, and others saw it as a sign that there is no crisis in Gaza. Indeed, a two-story building converted into an air-conditioned shopping mall (restrictions on the transfer of construction… Continue reading

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What happens after you allow cocoa into Gaza?

when you zoom out from the numbers and percentages, it turns out that even though Israel allowed the Palestinian Coordination Committee (the body in charge of coordinating and transferring requests from private sector merchants to the Israeli side, not including the agricultural sector) to include raw materials in its daily lists, there is still a long way to go until those materials actually reach Gaza. Since an Israeli permit is subject to the capacity constraints of the crossings, and since Israel has permitted only one of the crossings (Kerem Shalom) to be fully operational, most requests by merchants for raw materials are not even submitted. Last week, for example…. Continue reading

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Closing the gap between rhetoric and reality

As discussion of “easing” the closure of Gaza continues, restrictions on movement between Gaza and the West Bank remain tighter than ever. Last week, the Defense Ministry announced that the “easing” would in no way expand criteria for travel of people between Gaza and the… Continue reading

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A Significant Boost or a Slight Modification?

An article in yesterday’s Haaretz cites Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Brig. Gen. Eitan Dangot’s having told the Palestinian Authority that Israel will facilitate an increase the number of trucks entering Gaza by 50%. Dangot claims that in the near future, Israel will allow 150 trucks per day via Kerem Shalom and the equivalent of 120 trucks per day of aggregates via the conveyer belt at Karni, for a total of 270 trucks per… Continue reading

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