A Day in Gaza

Fascinating schools and people here, as everywhere.  More about that in a later post, but what strikes one first about Gaza--even beyond the thinly hidden danger at the border crossing--are the three massive economic sucks happening here every day.  First, goods in Gaza arrive, when they do, either via the Israeli border at Erez (only limited items) or the tunnels beneath the Rafah crossing from Egypt.  Either way, Gazans pay a de facto tax, either to Israeli suppliers or to the mobsters controlling the tunnel economy, that grossly inflates the cost of almost everything.  The second resource suck comes from the lost productivity of an unemployment rate near 60%, largely because it is impossible for Gazans to export even agricultural goods to any other country.  Employment is low, in part, because there are no markets other than within Gaza and therefore little money other than humanitarian relief coming in.  And the third suck is from a rapidly rising population with few prospects for successful and fulfilling lives.

Education offers some hope, but really the whole place is a prison camp filled with refugees, making all the ingredients for future trouble.  It is in no one's interest for this to go on.