The Problem with Aid: Fatah Gazans Speak Out
Speaking to a Gazan affiliated with Fatah, Hamas’ sworn enemy, Der Spiegel uncovers what many have been saying all along:
“People who are not in with Hamas don’t see any of the relief goods or the gifts of money,” Khadar says. On the sand dune where his house once perched, there is now an emergency shelter. The shelter is made of concrete blocks that Khadar dug from the rubble, and the roof is the canvas of a tent that provided the family with shelter for the first summer after the war. “Hamas supporters get prefabricated housing, furnishings and paid work. We get nothing,” Khadar complains.
Hamas Members Take and Distribute ‘at Their Own Discretion’
The reason his family receives nothing: Like many of his neighbors, Khadar is a die-hard supporter of the Fatah party, the sworn political enemy of the more radical Islamists in Hamas. That’s why Khadar has little hope of seeing any of the 10,000 tons of aid that the activist flotilla heading for the Gaza Strip tried to bring to Gaza’s harbor at the start of this week.
Of course, since Hamas refuses to allow any of that aid in, nobody in Gaza will see any of it.
Of course, other Gazans interviewed spell out the problem with international aid in much wiser terms:
Donations Are ‘Bad For Business’
There are people in Gaza though who will never be happy about the arrival of the aid. “Everything that arrives here, and is distributed free of charge, is bad for business,” says one Palestinian pharmacist, who studied in Germany but preferred not to give his name for fear of reprisals. Every medicine and every toy that well-meaning Westerners donate endanger the few jobs that still remain in Gaza, he explains. A colleague at another pharmacy agrees. “We are being bred into dependency,” he says, repeating the universal adage that guides international aid: “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. But if you give him a fishing rod, you feed him for a lifetime.”
When you get everything for free, there is no incentive to work hard, and all your spare time goes to wallowing in misery and watching the global tides of public opinion swinging back and forth. Many decide they’d rather join up with Hamas, at least they get some perks when the aid does come in.