The lower photo above is of a long boat used to carry stuff through the tunnels from Egypt to Gaza. Someone left it out on the road in Rafah. It slides along the sand in the tunnel.
The tunnels are big business, and they have produced a smuggling culture in Gaza that good people hate.
The picture at the top shows an effect of the smuggling culture: the tunnels are built big enough to get a motorcycle through– they are building one to get cars through, I heard, but it either collapsed or isn't done yet– and there are a lot of flash new motorcycles on the streets of Gaza. Because there are no new cars. Mostly young men are on these motorcycles. They are a byproduct of the smuggling culture, and it upsets many Gazans to see them. The black shirt in the foreground is a designer shirt.
You see designer t-shirts on young men in Gaza, but you don't see newspapers.
All this lawlessness, it serves both Hamas and Israel. Both powers are in on it. It gives Hamas power, as the military authority in a lawless place. And Israel has to be in on the business, too. It could shut down the tunnels tomorrow, there are hundreds of them.
But maintaining Gaza in a penurious state of helplessness, charity and ignorance, you cannot blame it all on Israel, but Israel evidently conceives that to be in its interest.
No it couldn't. The Palestinians can build & repair the tunnels faster and more cheaply than the Israelis can destroy them. If my guess is correct, a fair number of the tunnels will actually be whole networks, with multiple tunnels going under the border and multiple entrances, so that even if the Israelis bomb one section, the network will still be operational, and the bombed section will be repaired soon enough.
I don't really see your point. "The good people hate the smuggling culture" — what is that supposed to mean? Who are "the good people"? You sound like Richard Witty.
Aren't the tunnels also the only source of everyday goods? Tunnels aren't especially "nice" but currently they are necessary. Living with Israel's generous list of 40 approved items (up from the original list of 9) creates an impossible situation in Gaza. I'm sure this is Israel's intent. Tunnels also give Israel a "legitimate" excuse to bomb Gaza whenever they please.
The tunnels are a tribute to the human spirit: indefatigable even in the face the most arduous adversity. Good for the lads of Gaza to get their bikes through!
I agree that "[creating] an impossible situation in Gaza … is Israel's intent". The tunnels serve as a 'safety valve' to regulate the misery in Gaza, akin to the role of a pop-up pin on a pressure cooker, and enhance the plausibility of Israeli denial of responsibility. There is another angle, though. The tunnels remove traditional aspects of state power away from a central Palestinian authority into the hands of private entities (clans, criminal gangs, etc), hamstringing efforts to create a civil society that internationals could see as evidence that Palestinians can govern themselves. All states control the movement of goods and people across their borders. If their are no local taxes, then there are no locally funded government services like streets and schools. Having internationals donate money for these services prevents locals from taking control of their own destiny, from being stakeholders in their own system of governance, and conditions them to a dependence that is useful to Israel. Currently Israel taxes all goods that they allow into Gaza, and keeps the money as a bribe to ensure the compliant behavior of the Palestinian Authority, and of course all the commerce goes through Israel ports (mainly Ashdod I believe) taking jobs away from Palestinians and giving them to Israelis. The Israeli government has 'frozen' the distribution of this tax on Palestinians more than once. I have seen nothing to indicate one way or the other, but I have no doubt that not a single shekel in taxes on Gazans collected by the Israeli government has been made available to pay for public services in Gaza since Hamas won the election. No taxation without representation, anyone? What's good for the goose is good for the gander. I agree with your last point. However, I broaden it: the tunnels give Israel a 'legitimate excuse' to continue the perception that Hamas, with only a tiny group of combatants who don't even have the earnest support of the majority of the population, is some powerful group of genocidal maniacs posing an existential threat to Israeli Jews. It allows Israeli extremists to perpetuate the myth that the lack of progress towards peace is entirely the fault of Arabs and that Israel is blameless. The periodic bombings and 'targeted assassinations' , and the inevitable Palestinian response to them, are a part of the process that contributes toward this objective, not the objective itself. I think it longer correct to refer to Gaza as being under military occupation, as defined and regulated by the Geneva Conventions. Israeli control over Gaza has become something new and far more disturbing.
But maintaining Gaza in a penurious state of helplessness, charity and ignorance, you cannot blame it all on Israel, but Israel evidently conceives that to be in its interest. Israel is 100 percent responsible for the tunnels. No illegal siege = no tunnels. The Palestinians are simply using ingenuity to get around Israel's attempts to starve them into submission . I don't know who the "good" people of Gaza are who are allegedly upset at the only source of medicine and supplies prohibited by Israel that the Palestinians have, but I would imagine any resentment is limited to the cost of bringing goods through, as the tunnels are privately owned, and the smuggling of frivolous items. As for the guy in the motorcycle, I'm curious how you know his shirt is a "designer" shirt? Did you ask to look at the label? I imagine most "designer" clothes in Gaza are knock-offs. I can tell you that the tires on that bike are pretty bald, so that is not a new motorcycle you're looking at there.
And can we please stop using the word "smuggling." Smuggling implies illegal activity. Since neither Egypt, Israel, nor the usurper in Ramallah (expired President Abbas) have a right to deny Palestinians the basic necessities of life, the traders activities are not "illegal.:" Hence, they are not "smuggling." Ditto for the statements that Israel "arrests" Palestinians. The IDF is an illegal occupying force in the West Bank. Hence, they kidnap people; they don't arrest them. Words matter.
A knockoff ? Music to the ears of IP lawyers.
Yes, and let's add to the disturbing aspect that when Hamas won their election the Israelis kidnapped at least forty elected Hamas reps and hold them now in their prisons, along with 10,000 other Palestinians. Yet we still have people coming on to this blog who dwell on the taking of one IDF soldier who was involved in the attack on Palestinians at the border as a uniformed soldier.
Good points!
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Cheap knock off shirts; well, you have to give palestinians some small reward for trying to stop the choking off their will to live in very practical way by the Israelis (supported by the ignorant goy taxpayers).
I agree. Very good call.
And let's not forget that no one was murdered on 9/11! Those were all Infidel Sons of Pigs and Monkeys who were sacrificed for the Greater Glory of ALLAH the Merciful!!! When Palestinean terrorist MURDERS are ARRESTED, you complain, just as Supremacists always will. You guys have no idea how ridiculous you sound…
"Palestinean" factories in the West Bank SPECIALIZE in unauthorized manufacture of licensed goods. Ask an IP lawyer if are really interested. This will surprise you but Pals, far from being short on medications, actually EXPORT medications (lots of phony little blue pills, for example). Ingenious people, they are. How lovely…
Phil, in this instance I think you are giving Gazans (and maybe even Hamas) an unfair view. You expect societies to be self-correcting? Ok, maybe you do. But self-correcting even when under duress? To champion newspaper and book-reading while pasta and pens are not allowed in?
There were no Palestinians among the 9-11 hijackers. There were, however, Israel intelligence operatives laughing at and cheering on the murder of my countryman as the towers burned. The High-Fivers, More proof the Israelis were shadowing the 9/11 hijackers http://www.antiwar.com/israeli-files.php The 'Israeli Art Student' Files – Media coverage of Israel's underground in the US and the 9/11 connection. link to antiwar.com 9-11 was in large part blowback from our involuntary political, economic, and military subsidization of Israeli aggression, especially in Lebanon, and creeping ethnic cleansing and colonization of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. What is ridiculous is your feeble attempt to associate Palestinians with it. Readers, this is not tin foil hat conspiracy theory nonsense. It is an ugly truth that must be faced. Muster some moral courage, click those links, and read.
Colin Murray on 9/11: "There were, however, Israel intelligence operatives laughing at and cheering on the murder of my countryman as the towers burned. " Do you have any proof for any such thing? Have you been hearing voices? Have you been treated for this before? You are ill. Get help.