Tuesday, April 13, 2010

  • Tuesday, April 13, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Al Arabiya has more about Hamas' financial woes that I mentioned yesterday:

Hamas has begun taxing Gaza street vendors and shopkeepers, raising speculation the ruling Islamist group is in a financial crisis fuelled partly by Egypt's building of a border wall to stop smuggling tunnels.

Experts said on Monday that perhaps only a few dozen of the hundreds of tunnels are still functional as a result of the steel wall being pounded deep into the ground along the 14-km (8-mile)-long frontier.

For Gaza's Hamas government, which takes a cut from Palestinian merchants who move items ranging from cars to fuel to food along the subterranean route, that means lower revenues in an impoverished enclave under an Israeli-led blockade.

Weapons, and it is widely believed cash, also come in via the tunnels.

"There is a real financial crisis," Palestinian economist Omar Shaban said.

The Hamas administration, he said, employed 34,000 people in the Gaza Strip and had put much of its liquidity into the purchase of buildings and land.

"The crisis may also indicate either a lack of foreign financial support, Arab and Islamic, or a difficulty to get that support into the territory for some reasons," Shaban said.

For the first time since Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from the rival Fatah movement of Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007, it has begun to collect taxes from street merchants and small business owners.

"They asked me to pay 1,100 shekels ($290) a month. How much did I earn to give them what they asked for?" asked the owner of a shop selling falafel (fried chickpea) snacks.

"Instead, I asked them to take the store and pay me the 1,100 shekels every month. It would be a better deal for me," he joked.

A Hamas lawmaker confirmed that the Islamist group ruling Gaza was facing a financial "crisis" because of Egypt's moves to seal its border and a boycott by local banks.

"The government is facing a crisis," MP Jamal Nassar said in a statement. "The siege on the (Hamas-run) Palestinian government has been tightened recently and because of this it has been unable to bring in funds from abroad."


Related Posts:

  • Weeds - the videoThis is an experiment to see how many more people will watch a video on YouTube than read an entry on my blog.Earlier this year I had two popular posts called "Weeds." This is a video version of those posts.… Read More
  • Iranian apology for horrible crimeFrom the Tehran Times:President of Iran Football Federation (IFF) Ali Kaffashian apologized to the Iranian people over a New Year greeting email sent to Israel’s football federation.Director of IFF foreign relations’ office M… Read More
  • "Siege" newsIsrael today again allowed trucks full of strawberries and flowers to be exported out of Gaza, mostly for the European market.On Sunday, Israel allowed a shipment of strawberries out, and it appears that this is going to beco… Read More
  • Abbas consolidates his powerEven though the West seems obsessed with Mahmoud Abbas' pretense of wanting to quit his job as PA President (saying that he will not run for elections that he knows will not happen anytime soon,) he has been quietly strength… Read More
  • One and a half million human shields (video)Goldstone said there is "no evidence" that Hamas deliberately hid among civilians.CNN and other videos prove otherwise.… Read More

AddToAny

EoZTV Podcast

Podcast URL

Subscribe in podnovaSubscribe with FeedlyAdd to netvibes
addtomyyahoo4Subscribe with SubToMe

search eoz

comments

Speaking

translate

E-Book

For $18 donation








Sample Text

EoZ's Most Popular Posts in recent years

Search2

Hasbys!

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

Donate!

Donate to fight for Israel!

Monthly subscription:
Payment options


One time donation:

Follow EoZ on Twitter!

Interesting Blogs

Blog Archive