UPDATE: It should also be noted, as one astute reader has pointed out, that before the thousands of Jewish colonists in Gaza were removed in 2005, they made sure to destroy many of the greenhouses and agricultural facilities they were leaving behind so as to vindictively sabotage future Palestinian economic development after their departure. Naturally, this aspect of the story is omitted by Bronner, who only mentions that Gaza greenhouses were “looted” by Palestinians after settlers left.
Bronner’s own employer, The New York Times, published an article entitled “Israeli Settlers Demolish Greenhouses and Gaza Jobs” on July 15, 2005. It revealed:
About half the greenhouses in the Israeli settlements in Gaza have already been dismantled by their owners, who have given up waiting to see if the government was going to come up with extra payment as an inducement to leave them behind, say senior officials working on the coordination of this summer’s Israeli pullout from Gaza.”
Journalist Steven Erlanger, who preceded Bronner as NYT Jerusalem bureau chief and who wrote the piece, reported, “Of the roughly 1,000 acres of agricultural land that were under greenhouses in the 21 Israeli settlements in Gaza, only 500 acres remain – creating significant doubts that the greenhouses could be handed over to the Palestinians.”
Nevertheless, at the behest of former World Bank head James Wolfensohn, $14 million was raised to pay departing Jewish settlers not to destroy the greenhouses. The settlers, every single one of whom was an illegal colonist of occupied land, had “complained that the Israeli government was not offering sufficient compensation, and they have threatened to dismantle or destroy computerized irrigation systems and other valuable equipment needed to keep the greenhouses running.”
So, while the settlers were generously compensated for greenhouses (which had been “heavily subsidized by the Israeli government” to begin with, in contravention of international law) in a deal that was to cover “about 90 percent of the more than 1,000 acres of greenhouses in Gush Katif, the main settlement cluster in Gaza,” The New York Times reported at the time that “journalists who have been to the area recently say a good number of the greenhouses have already been at least partly dismantled.”
By November 2005, only three months after the so-called “disengagement”, the Timeswas already touting the economic opportunities of Palestinians in Gaza who were benefiting from the greenhouses. Correspondent Greg Myre reported, “Palestinians have repaired scores of greenhouses left by the settlers and planted a fall crop, and they are preparing to harvest an estimated $20 million worth of strawberries, cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers and herbs and spices. The produce is intended mostly for export to Europe, but some will also be headed to Israel, Arab countries and the United States.”
In a wicked instance of irony when now viewed nearly six years later, the article states that “Israel says it too has an incentive in seeing Gaza’s economy prosper”, notes that “a Gaza seaport is planned” and quotes, of all people, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev as saying, “We understand that a successful Gaza economy is a crucial ingredient in the overall success of what is now Palestinian Gaza. And the success of Gaza is a crucial factor in getting the peace process back on track.”
Myre, doing his duty as a Times reporter to always present the “desert bloomism” of Zionist ingenuity and progress, writes:
When the Jewish settlers came to Gaza decades ago, they developed innovative techniques for cultivating high-quality fruits and vegetables in the barren sand dunes, where fresh water is scarce. When the Israeli farmers started leaving, they took their most valuable equipment with them, and some greenhouses were damaged or destroyed.
In response to the Times piece, Gal Beckerman (who know writes for The Forward) published as excellent rejoinder in the Columbia Journalism Review, noting, for instance, that “whatever the Palestinians do manage to grow [in the repaired greenhouses] is likely to spoil if it can’t pass quickly enough through the Karni border crossing, Gaza’s outlet to Israel. Palestinians have no assurance that Israel will expedite security checks allowing them to promptly deliver products, such as strawberries, that go bad without constant refrigeration.” He continues,
The Times adds, without comment, another interesting piece of information. While Israeli farmers employed 3,000 workers on 1,000 acres of land, the Palestinians, working on only half that amount of land, currently employ 4,000 workers and an additional 2,000 security guards. That doesn’t much sound like an efficient (let alone safe) operation that is going to deliver high margins well into the future. And the Times, which projects that the greenhouses will deliver $20 million in revenues, doesn’t tell us whether the cost of operating them is likely to be even higher.
Two months after the Times report, Hamas won democratic elections and punitive economic sanctions were immediately implemented by both Israel and the ‘Quartet’, punishing Palestinians for their own self-determination. A United Nations report by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People from October 2006 revealed that, during the year following the Israel disengagement, “less than 10 per cent of the Gaza Strip’s minimum daily export targets have been achieved.” The Committee also reported:
Basic food commodities were severely depleted, bakeries closed and food rationing was introduced. The closure also seriously affected the export of produce from the Gaza Strip. The Al-Muntar (Karni) closures have cost Palestinians up to $500,000 a day, according to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates.
The report also noted that “UNRWA officials expressed alarm that the general living conditions of the Palestine refugees in the Gaza Strip had become ‘deplorable and getting worse’.”
By the following year, Gaza was under full siege by Israel and Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt.
Incidentally, the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco posted a link to Bronner’s New York Times, and it’s not surprising why. With propaganda like that, Israeli should be proud.
