The closing of the Karni crossing from Gaza into Israel is hurting the Palestinians badly.

And they have nobody to blame but themselves. Gaza: Karni closures a ‘catastrophe’.

While many of the Gush Katif farmers have yet to plant their crops in new soil, the great hope that the greenhouses they left in Gaza would provide a boon to the Palestinian economy is withering on its own vine.

The closure of the Karni goods crossing from Gaza to Israel for three weeks in January and now for ten days and counting in February has led to immense financial loss for the Palestinian farmers and the corporation that took over the greenhouses in August.

Additionally, the Israeli export firm which signed on to ship the Gaza-grown produce to Europe, the US and other international markets, has also taken a financial hit from the closing.

According to Dr. Bassil Jabir, the CEO of the Palestinian Economic Development Company which is overseeing the production and exports of the produce grown in the former Gush Katif greenhouses, his corporation has lost over $1 million due to the closures and is losing between $40,000 and $100,000 more each day Karni remains closed.

“What we are seeing is a real catastrophe,” Jabir said. “There is also indirect loss because we haven’t been harvesting every day. Therefore the produce stays on the vine and the growth of the seedlings and stems are damaged,” he added.

As part of the deal brokered by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in November, the Karni crossing was to remain open as much as possible to allow for Palestinian exports from Gaza - such as the greenhouse produce - to make it to the Israeli and international markets. Closing Karni was only to be ordered by Israel in the event of imminent security threats.

However, a series of attempted attacks by Palestinian terrorists near Karni and the discovery of what the IDF thinks may be smuggling tunnels underneath the terminal have prompted the long closures, the IDF said.

And of course, the looting and deliberate trashing of the greenhouses by triumphant Palestinian mobs didn’t exactly help.

The Gush Katif greenhouses were purchased in August by a group of American philanthropists for $14 million and given to the Palestinians in a deal brokered by Quartet Envoy James Wolfensohn, the former World Bank president who donated $500,000 of his own money to the cause.

When the PEDC took control, however, less than half of the greenhouses were in working order, having been looted by Palestinians in the days following the IDF’s withdrawal from Gaza or left in disrepair by the departing Gush Katif farmers. The PEDC, a private company owned by the PA, spent an additional $14 million rehabilitating those greenhouses in preparation for their first growing season under Palestinian control.

They’ve made a lot of bad choices lately.