A View from the Ground: The New York Times correspondant from Gaza

A fascinating and highly informative interview with Taghreed El-Khodary, the New York Times correspondent in Gaza and International Crisis Group analyst. (Middle East Bulletin)

Some Key points:

1) The Siege and Economic Blockage benefit Hamas

-The private sector in Gaza has been completely destroyed, there is a complete lack of liquidity at banks, and unemployment is increasing.

-Hamas has set up its own bank to pay civil servants. (PA teachers have been replaced with Hamas teachers, who mainly focus on religious studies)

-Hamas builds recreational infrastructure to impress the population:

"I was in one of the settlements that Israel evacuated where Hamas built a park, planted apple trees and filled a pool with fish for the kids. I talked to people and asked them why they liked going there. They said ‘there is a zoo, a pool full of fish.’ So I went there and it’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen. The zoo was one cage of monkeys. And imagine, these people were so impressed that they called it an amusement park. You go there and it’s so bad, but they’ve never seen anything else. For them, one cage of monkeys was a zoo. You go to the fish farm that they created, and it’s smelly, but for the children it was meaningful and exciting. It’s a place to sit, a place to barbeque."

2) There are a number of discourses within Gaza society allowed by Hamas, some of them critical of killing Israeli civilians and firing rockets (at Sderot, presumably):

"They are producing films, too. The latest one was about Emad Akel, who was 23 when he was killed by Israel in 1993. He was a fighter that Hamas portrays as establishing a whole military philosophy. Why? Because he managed to target Israeli soldiers only. So they made a story about him. And who wrote the script? Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader. And that will be shown to the public starting August 1. And everybody, whether they like Hamas or not, wants to go because it’s entertainment, and because there are no other movie theaters. Then you have a play by an independent writer. In the play they mock the firing of the rockets as useless—the fighters fire them just for the sake of firing."

3) Hamas is interested in engagement with the international community and wants to be recognized as in control of Gaza.

"I was the one who did the interview for The New York Times. I sat with Meshaal for many hours, for two days, and the sense is that Hamas is very keen to engage in international politics. Meshaal told me that they are willing to be part of a solution when it comes to a peace process, and that they are not going to be the one obstructing an agreement. The international community must really read between the lines. There has to be an understanding, because after all, on the ground, Hamas is in Gaza, Fatah is in the West Bank, completely isolated from each other. I think you also need to learn from Oslo. Hamas was out of the game, therefore they obstructed. At that time they obstructed through a series of suicide bombings. This disequilibrium will always be there if the international community strives to marginalize a party that is too influential."