By Xinhua
Gaza : The long expected safety and security returned to Gaza’s streets eventually after Hamas took control of the enclave, however people living there began to come to their senses that it is not the only thing they want.
“We were looking for an end of chaos, we wanted the security and we got it,” said Ahmad al-Ifranji, a middle aged beans dealer whose face showed paradoxically anxiety rather than delight.
“Now, the people look for food and dignity life as the first class aim,” he turned his topic sharply, making his bewildering paradox clear.
That’s the reality in Gaza that though the current Gaza ruler the Islamic Hamas movement could provide a relative peace for impartial residents, people there recalculated and started to yearn for better economy and freedom.
All crossing points on the borders between Gaza and Israel or Egypt are sealed off and only left open to humanitarian supplies such as food, medicine and fuel. As a result, any demand beyond the necessaries is a mirage for the beleaguered Gazans.
Gaza economist Khaled Abdel Shafi has warned that the Gaza Strip, home to some 1.5 million residents, most of whom are poor and refugees, “is not far away from social and economic collapse.”
With two thirds of the 3,000 factories in the strip closed and more than 20,000 workers losing their jobs, Abdel Shafi predicted that the inhabitants started to turn into pure receivers of foreign aids.
Although Hamas movement, which ousted its rival Fatah movement led by President Mahmoud Abbas and thus seized the control of Gaza after days of bloody infighting, dose work remarkably in eliminating crimes and disorders from Gaza streets, it has little room in improving the economy under the strict besiegement by Israel.
While blaming the deteriorating economic situation in Gaza on the Ramallah-based caretaker government, which was appointed by Abbas after the Gaza’s fall, the Hamas movement has no choice but to crow about its success in turning the area into a very quiet place.
Islam Shahwan, spokesman for Hamas’ Executive Force, said that they have succeeded in getting over “clannish rivalries, car theft drugs and traffic.”
He also spoke highly about several steps being taken by the deposed Hamas government, including hiring new judges to reactivate the courts, and creating a women police force and a naval force.
However, the Gazans seem hard to be bought off, though the achievements by Hamas in other fields except for economy are really striking.
Dr. Mohammed Dhahi, 35, told Xinhua that security can never be met as long as the poverty is still there, which might give a sound explanation in this regard.
“I can’t give my child a piece of security to eat, or a piece of security to buy food at school,” said Dr. Dhahi, who was shopping with his family.
He, meanwhile, raised another sensitive issue in Gaza — the freedom of expression. “People can not say whatever they want to say as we used to do in the past like criticizing and even slamming the authority.”
Mohammed Basheer, 38, a taxi driver, embraced the same view in this point, criticizing the Hamas Executive Force for “attacking any one who may express his opinion on the situation in the way that Hamas doesn’t like.”
“There are violations against human rights committed in secret,” Basheer said.
The Hamas Executive Force spokesman Shahwan affirmed his group doesn’t arrest anyone for his political affiliation. “Believe me, we are true in this point, we only arrest the people for criminal background.”
However, Yousef al-Najjar, a Fatah member, complained of the continuation of Hamas crackdown on his colleagues in Gaza, saying he knows many people were arrested for being members of Fatah.
“There is safety and security, but it is limited to Hamas people,” said al-Najjar.