The most important challenge that the people of Gaza are facing nowadays is the deteriorated economic situation in all areas, which has led to hunger, the lack of safe drinking water and limited electricity. That’s in the words of Ali Abu Shahla, a member of the PIJ editorial board, who is a Gaza-based businessman, political and economic activist, as well as an acting chairman of the Al-Aqsa University Board of Trustees. As a peace activist, he has participated in many international conferences, particularly speaking for the Palestinians and the people of Gaza. To give an update on the life in Gaza, many issues will be examined, from electricity to politics.
Apart from the crossing on the Egyptian side, two entrances lead into Gaza from Israel, one is the Erez Crossing, for people and the other is the Kerem Shalom Crossing for goods. Israel is completely in control of both crossings. Obtaining permits from the Israeli side requires a long application process in advance, even for hospital patients, who are transferred to the West Bank or Israel.
According to Abu Shahla, the people of Gaza are in need of assistance in all fields. The poverty rate in Gaza is estimated at 80%, meaning that 1.6 million out of 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are considered poor. About 300.000 are unemployed, according to the 2018 statistics. If you stop your car at a traffic lights crossroad, at least five people ask you for money, says Abu Shahla. Even people who work for the government only get 30%-40% of their salaries, in comparison to the 1980s and 1990s. Despite the suffering and the economic situation, young people seek basic and higher education as an opportunity. But the universities in Gaza have to deal with the non-payment of tuition fees on the side of the students and reduced salaries on the side of their workers.
“I was born in Gaza in 1946 and I have lived almost all my life in Gaza. I also spent time in Egypt in the 1960s for Engineering Education and work, as well as in Kuwait and Syria for work from 1968 to 1972, but I have never felt the suffering that we feel right now. Every person in Gaza is suffering a lot,” says Ali Abu Shahla.
Back in 1972, there were only 8 engineers in Gaza when Abu Shahla joined his family in Gaza and worked as the City Engineer of the Town. Today there is about 13.000 engineers in Gaza that are registered at the Syndicate of Engineers. 70-80% of them are unemployed or working in other fields. The goal of the young, educated, but mostly unemployed young person is to travel to any place in the world - Turkey is their goal for the time being, to reach Europe. Ali Abu Shahla’s Consulting Engineering Company, of which he has been the Director General since 1975, used to have 5-10 million-dollar projects per year and 30 staff members during the 1980s and 1990s. Today there are only a few workers left. If there is work, he asks some people to come back, but he can’t pay them an adequate salary. Families often rely on few employed family members that get paid fairly enough to provide for their whole family.
Solar energy could provide a solution – but people can’t afford to install it
After the last war in 2014, people received money to rebuild their demolished houses. Abu Shahla submitted a report to the responsible person of the Palestinian Authority asking to install solar energy panels and batteries at the same time the houses were being rebuilt. Therefore, the people would have a stable and profitable energy source that doesn’t rely on local and Israeli electricity. However, PA didn’t enable the solar energy plan to unfold. Now, the people of Gaza are struggling with only 4, 8 or 12 hours of electricity a day. They don’t get financial assistance for solar panels or batteries. Abu Shahla tells us that his office building has solar energy off grid system providing him with about 2Kw/hour, but the average person can’t afford to pay around $2,000 for a system that would keep a small house electrified with less than 1.00 Kw/hour.
Gaza would be in need of 500 megawatts to assure that all 2 million people have electricity for 24hrs a day. Instead, the people have been living on only 110 megawatts of electricity from Israel for many years in addition to 30-100 megawatts from the local power station, which depends on the quantity of fuel that’s purchased. Abu Shahla calls it a “one leg power station” in Gaza, referring to the instability, because it can’t be used to full capacity. In Abu Shahla’s office building, they have 6 batteries with 8 solar panels. Normally, he needs to buy electricity from the Electrical Distribution Co. If they are out of electricity due to their limited resources, they have to buy it from Gazan investors’ operating Diesel generators. The problem is that their prices are seven times higher. The UN and other organizations and countries such as Qatar are now engaged in bringing fuel, which will provide more sufficient electricity to Gaza for a certain period. The UN Secretary General Representative in Gaza, former Bulgarian minister Mr. Mladenov just succeeded in getting 300 million dollars to support the people of Gaza in many fields such as fuel, medicines, water, solar systems for people whose houses were destroyed and more, but this isn’t a long-term solution.
The sewage time-bomb
Without proper recycling, poisonous trash, such as batteries that only last for 3-5 years, get into aquifers and water table. A new project is promising and tackles these major problems. The sewage treatment plant evolved because the sewage pollutes the Mediterranean Sea. The goal is to construct 4 major treatment plants in the Gaza Strip to treat sewage according to European criteria. That way, sewage water can be drinkable again and it can be reused to recharge the aquifer. However, due to the lack of energy, people in Gaza can’t use the new sewage treatment plant in the Gaza Northern (NGEST) area to its full capacity. 10 mega kilowatts would be necessary and they only have around 3, says AbuShahla, who is also a board member of the General Union for Palestinian Engineers worldwide.
He suggests a new design with two systems. One system (Gray water) is for agricultural purposes and house gardens. People should also build simple small wells themselves to collect and filtrate the water for these purposes. The second system involves the toilet water that goes straight to sewage. This water that is used in the 4 sewage treatment plants in Gaza in the future, must stop sending sewage into the sea. If it wouldn’t go into the sea, the sea water desalination would be more effective, without the need for bacterial treatment.
Gidon Bromberg, founder and Israel director of EcoPeace told The Jerusalem Post in 2016 that 90 million liters of raw sewage are flowing into the Mediterranean Sea and underground aquifers daily in Gaza. “This becomes a ticking time bomb,” said Bromberg, because the sewage water also reaches Egypt and Israel. This is problematic, if diseases, like cholera break out. The Ashkelon desalination plant close to Gaza on the Israeli side already had to be shut down for some time, because of the sewage pollution.
Almost 95% of the water in Gaza is not drinkable, according to UNTCAD and OCHA reports. Gaza will be an unlivable area. There is a high rate of kidney failure from the drinking water due to the high concentrate of Nitrates, these patients are exceeding by almost 14% per year and need proper Dialysis centers which aren’t available. But the people can’t afford to think of the consequences, because the drinkable water from Israel is not sufficient and very expensive.
The support of the UN and EU for medical care in Gaza is essential. Abu Shahla states that it’s their responsibility to put more pressure on the Israeli government to offer more electricity for Gazans. “We don’t want to beg for money.” Since the Oslo agreement in 1993 until the end of 2018, 36.5 billion dollars have been given to the Palestinians, including those, who live in the West Bank. The money goes directly to services, but instead the region is in need of “investments, for example to build more factories and to increase the imports and exports,” says Abu Shahla.
Mercy is good, but investments are better
The goal is to have a free trade area in Gaza and a good economy. To realize this, peace has to be restored. Abu Shahla argues how attractive Gaza can be for big companies, because of the employee’s and worker’s low wages in Gaza. He adds that “we need peace with ourselves first and with other Palestinians second, before we can have peace with the Israelis.”
Help out of mercy is good, but investments are better. “Don’t give me a fish, but show me how to fish,” that’s how the help for the people in Gaza should be designed, wishes AbuShahla. In addition, transferring knowledge is vital, teaching Gazans how to invest, build and work. There already is great cooperation between Gaza, Israel and the West Bank, especially in the IT sector. Everyone benefits from this, for example in Afghanistan in the 1990s, Abu Shahla worked with a German firm to submit the design for a school in Afghanistan. Despite the conflict, he says, that it’s good how people are still connected over the internet. He cites media theorist Marshall McLuhan, who said that the “world is a small village.”
Abu Shahla complains that the Israeli government would only be concerned about today and tomorrow, but there are no stable and peaceful plans for the next 30 years. “Today is not tomorrow,” says the Gaza-based businessman. In 1972, there were 600.000 people living in Gaza Strip, now there are almost 2 million and in 30 years probably 6 million, he estimates.
Fanatics won’t solve the problems, “We need Hope & Moderation”
April 9, 2019 the Israeli population voted and Netanyahu now enters his 4th term as Prime Minister of Israel. AbuShahla foresees only cosmetic changes, instead of fundamental ones, especially because the Israeli government includes religious and right extremist parties. His hopes for the future include increase of open import from the Israeli side and abroad and to not forbid the double use of materials, which caused that Israelis stopped entering new car tires, after Palestinian demonstrators burned them by the Eastern border fence. Many people in Gaza are now relying on donkeys and horses again. Also, the machines in Gaza factories are outdated and there aren’t any imports of bulldozers or big cars allowed, which leaves the streets and projects in horrific condition. Regarding the political situation, AbuShahla isn’t optimistic, “Netanyahu’s fanatical government isn’t striving towards peace, it’s rather selfish”. Today, they would think about building settlements, without caring about a peaceful solution for tomorrow.
There couldn’t be any agreements with fanatics, no matter, if they are Palestinians or Israelis. AbuShahla is a peace advocate and therefore he believes that someday, there will be peace in the West Bank and in Gaza, maybe after 30 years, maybe after 20 years. One thing is clear for the Gaza-based businessman, there won’t be peace under the present Israeli government. As the Israeli government continues to build more settlements in the West Bank, the conflict intensifies. “You can’t live in peace while your neighbor is starving. We live in the same area. We don’t want violence like what we noticed lately in New Zealand and Sri Lanka,” said AbuShahla. He said that he is afraid that his people are becoming desperate and hopeless. “Desperate and hopeless people are very, very dangerous. They can kill themselves without caring about it. We don’t want desperate people among us, nor anywhere in the world.” Instead, he calls out to be hopeful all the time and more moderate. “We should work towards peace. Even if I won’t get all the cake, but only 10%, it will be fine. I can ask for another 10% in the future.”
The international community will continue to play a vital role in the future of Palestinian issue and in Gaza. The need is to apply real international pressure on the Israeli government. The entry of goods and humanitarian aid has to be facilitated and increased in all areas. When Abu Shahla was asked, how to be optimistic about the future, despite the difficult situation, he responded: “No one in Gaza is optimistic, because they do not think of having a good future. They think about daily life.”
Click here to read Ali AbuShahla’s articles for the PIJ: http://pij.org/app.php/author/794