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Israeli Closure Catastrophic for Gaza Economy: USAID
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Palestinian workers had to destroy trucks loaded with vegetables after being turned away from Karni crossing.
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GAZA,
March 7, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israel's
closure of the Gaza Strip's main commercial crossing has caused steep
financial losses and risks an agricultural catastrophe in the
impoverished area, according to a US government report.
"The
extended closure of the Karni crossing has resulted in significant
losses for (Palestine Economic Development) PED Co. and could prove
financially catastrophic for agribusinesses in Gaza," said the US
Agency for International Development (USAID) in a report obtained by
Reuters on Tuesday, March 7.
Israeli
occupation forces closed the crossing for 21 days from January 15
through February 5.
The
terminal was closed again on February 21 after a mysterious explosion
in the area and has since remained closed.
Israeli
officials claimed the closure was to head off possible Palestinian
attacks.
Israel
has retained control of all access points for bringing goods in and
out of the Gaza Strip, citing security concerns.
Losses
The
terminal's closure has caused agricultural losses estimated at more
than $450,000 per day, according to the report.
It
added that the PEC Co., which manages the Gaza greenhouses left behind
by Jewish settlers after the Israeli withdrawal from the area last
September, has been losing more than $120,000 a day.
The
US report warned that unless the Karni crossing is reopened, about 100
tones of produce could be destroyed per day in the coming weeks.
Last
week alone, 58 trucks loaded with 450 tones of tomatoes, cucumbers,
sweet peppers and other produce were turned away from Karni because of
the Israeli closure of the crossing.
The
contents were later destroyed along with more than 600,000 carnations
and another 70 tones of newly harvested products.
A
Gaza border deal brokered by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
was supposed to pave the way for Gaza to sharply increase its
agricultural exports.
Greenhouses
occupy 56 kilometers of the Gaza Strip, which also has 12 wells.
The
greenhouses were bought from the departing Jewish settlers by private
foreign donors for about $13 million.
Run-out
Last
week, the United Nations warned stocks of wheat, sugar and cooking oil
were likely to run out within days unless Israeli reopened the Karni
crossing.
Mustafa
Shurrab, general manager of the Palestine Flour Mills Co., said all
the mills in Gaza were threatened with closure because they have run
out of wheat.
Gaza
hoped to win billions of dollars in foreign investment to turn the
impoverished territory of 1.4 million people into a thriving model for
the future Palestinian state.
A
recent report by the UN Special Coordinator (UNSCO) blamed Israel's
separation wall and its network of checkpoints and roadblocks across
the occupied West Bank for a "de-development" of the
Palestinian economy.
In
June 2004, Palestinian businessmen accused Israel of attempting to
paralyze the already-shattered Palestinian economy by closing the main
commercial crossing into the Strip.
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