As Palestinian Statehood Looms, Poor Gazans Feel Like Garbage
Getty Images photo of Palestinian children in front of a big pile of garbage.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — In the Palestinians’ high-profile bid to seek statehood at the United Nations, half the future nation they envision has been all but forgotten. Residents of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip are watching frustrated from the sidelines as the West Bank-based leadership pushes for the long-held dream.
The move for U.N. recognition has created a quandary for the Islamic militant Hamas, which violently overran Gaza three years ago and set up a rival government there. They can’t publicly oppose the idea of statehood, but they are wary of giving a boost to their West Bank rival, internationally backed President Mahmoud Abbas. They also don’t want to appear to recognize Israel, as the move implicitly does by calling for a state only on territories captured in 1967.
Palestinian leaders in the West Bank “forget the missing part, which is Gaza,” said Taher Khalil, a 45-year-old retired civil servant and father of seven.
“We only know about this move from TV, we don’t know what is right and what is wrong … no one came out and told us what the future will look like after we submit the bid at the U.N.,” he said.
Abbas’ Palestinian Authority is seeking recognition of an independent state on territories that Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, including the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza. Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but still controls its crossings, blockades its coast and occupies the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Abbas’ government has wielded no authority in Gaza, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, since Hamas pushed out Abbas loyalists in 2007 and set up an Islamic-oriented mini-state complete with government ministries, a military force and a postal service.
Hamas, allied with Iran and openly committed to Israel’s destruction, does not support the U.N. move, but has largely kept a low profile, not openly condemning it. Instead, Hamas officials have chided Abbas — also known by his nickname Abu Mazen — for going it alone.
“Abu Mazen’s decision to go to the U.N. without consulting with Palestinian factions about the negative and positive impact of such a move and with only partial Arab, Islamic and international support is something very risky,” said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.
“We are talking about issues related to the fate of the Palestinian people,” he said. “Such a move must be studied by experts and decisions should be taken by all the parties concerned, not individually.”
Further complicating matters, the last time Palestinians held parliamentary elections, in 2006, Hamas won, and the group claims that it is thus the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, not the Palestinian Authority. Abbas’ government is internationally recognized and bankrolled by foreign aid, but his term has expired and he currently governs by decree, with Israel holding overall security control in the West Bank.
In Gaza, souvenir cups are on sale commemorating the statehood initiative, and the U.N. bid appears to have become the talk of the town among average Gazans. But opinions vary.
Awny Ouda, a 23-year-old student at Gaza’s Islamic University, said he would not be satisfied with a state based on the lines Israel held before the 1967 war and wants one that replaces Israel.
“Abbas wants to give the remains of our lands and rights on a silver tray to the occupation,” he said. “Recognizing the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders would deprive us of returning to our lands of 1948.”