A brief history of Gaza aid being stolen by Hamas

In 2018, Middle East Online reported:

Hamas is accused of deepening the crisis of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, after the criticism it has been exposed to regarding the seizure of international grant funds and aid from more than one party.

Hamas, as it controls the Gaza Strip, receives millions of dollars in support from countries and international organizations to build hospitals, schools, and roads for more than two million Palestinians stuck in the Gaza Strip.

Despite the harsh measures and siege imposed by Israel on Gaza under the pretext of preventing Hamas from arming, which further complicates the lives of Palestinians, the movement spends a lot of money to purchase and develop weapons and equip its military arm, the Al-Qassam Brigades.

Hamas is accused by the Palestinian National Authority of practicing a policy of blackmail by seizing international support, as the Palestinian government said in 2018 that Hamas “steals the money of the Palestinian people and seizes all of the sector’s revenues, refuses to transfer them to the public treasury, and imposes fees and taxes on citizens for its treasury.”

It is one of the great untold stories of Gaza: hundreds of millions of dollars worth of aid has been diverted by Hamas into its own terror operations. 

Here are some examples:

In 2009, dozens of Hamas militants attacked a charity, Cooperative Housing Foundation International (CHF), arrested its workers, and confiscated aid meant for needy families. 

In February 2009, UNRWA accused Hamas of stealing over 3,500 blankets and 406 food parcels meant for UNRWA "refugees." Days later, UNRWA said Hamas stole 200 tons of wheat and 100 tons of rice.

In 2010, French aid group Help Doctors accused Hamas on Wednesday of seizing computer equipment, telephones, chairs, office equipment and medical files.

Also in 2010, Hamas was accused of stealing medicine and medical equipment  provided by the PA and putting them for sale in Hamas-owned pharmacies. People talked about seeing medicine clearly labeled "in support of the Palestinian people" or "donated by Charity X."

In 2014, Hamas was again accused of stealing medicine meant to be given for free to Palestinians.

In 2019, poor Gazans accused Hamas of stealing meat sent by Saudi Arabia during Ramadan and reselling it on the black market, along  with medicines and other aid.  

Meanwhile, Gaza stores could be seen selling UNRWA-marked food packages, saying in English "not for sale." 

We don't know if Hamas stole than and then sold them to stores, but clearly aid to Gaza was not reaching its intended recipients. 

With this history, why would anyone believe that current aid to Gaza will not be diverted to Hamas first? That's what they do. (And so does the Palestinian Authority.)

So as terrible as this sounds, aid should not be sent if Hamas is the primary beneficiary. All the controls in the world cannot stop that theft from happening, and Hamas threats keep the witnesses mostly silent. 

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Were the Afro-Palestinians slaves?

Last week one of the most famous black Palestinians, Fatima Bernawi - who was imprisoned for trying to explode a bomb in a Jerusalem movie theater - died. She was buried in a large ceremony in Gaza.

Most articles about "Afro-Palestinians" say a version of this legend of how they arrived:

Devout Muslims, Africans from countries such as Chad, Sudan, Nigeria and Senegal, trekked across continents to perform the original Muslim pilgrimage of the Haj - first to Mecca, then to al-Aqsa.

Such pilgrimages date back to as early as 636 AD, after Omar Ibn Khatab took Jerusalem from the Byzantine Empire. Some arrived, fell in love with the city and decided never to leave. 

A variant says that they mostly arrived in the 19th century:

 During the Ottoman era, Africans worked as custodians and guards of al-Aqsa Mosque – their role was to prohibit non-Muslims accessing the premises of Al-Haram Al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary and third holiest site in Islam. Many of them were Muslim immigrants from Chad, Sudan, Nigeria and Senegal who settled in Jerusalem in the nineteenth century after performing the pilgrimage to Mecca.

I'm not so sure. I think that the majority came to Palestine as slaves, not as pilgrims.

Domestic Life in Palestine, by Mary Eliza Rogers and published in 1865, says that the guards of Al Aqsa at the time were "black slaves."

Likewise, 2011's "In Your Eyes a Sandstorm: Ways of Being Palestinian" says, "Many Afro-Palestinians arrived as slaves during the Ottoman era, and discrimination continues today."

This 2019 paper on the phenomenon of slavery in Ottoman Palestine sheds much light:

Up to 1.3 million slaves from Africa alone are estimated to have been transported to the Ottoman Empire, including Ottoman Egypt and North Africa, during the 19th century.Although trade in slaves was officially forbidden, ownership of slaves was not, and possession and use of slaves continued into the early 20th century. Ottoman officials generally tried to steer a compromise course in order to satisfy the demands of abolitionists and at the same time not to alienate conservative forces within the Empire. Ottoman Egypt made up the lion’s share of slave trade and slave holding, while in the region of Palestine, its direct neighbor, both phenomena were of much smaller proportion. 

Since the number of Africans in Jerusalem was in the hundreds, it appears that a large percentage were probably brought over as slaves. The paper notes that well-to-do Arabs regarded slaves as status symbols, and they maintained them into the 20th century as the practice waned. 

It is no wonder that Black Palestinians want to romanticize their ancestors as pilgrims who wanted to stay in Jerusalem, instead of slaves brought over in the huge Muslim slave trade. But is appears that far more of them are descendants of slaves than is reported nowadays. 

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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