August 29, 2005

Gaza Strip builder painfully watches settlement razing

RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip

Palestinian contractor Jamil Abu Saed made good money building houses in the Gaza Strip’s Jewish settlements, and it was painful to watch his life’s work demolished this week during the Israeli withdrawal.

At the same time, he is happy to see the settlers leave, because seven nieces and nephews were wounded in gun battles between Palestinians and soldiers guarding the Israeli enclaves.

Yet, in a reflection of the tangled reality of life in Gaza’s biggest refugee camp, Abu Saed is worried. He fears a Palestinian-ruled Gaza will quickly descend into chaos.

Abu Saed, married to three women and a father of 26, said he hates Israel for making his life “hell” during nearly five years of armed conflict.

The four-storey home he shares with his extended family is riddled with bullets. All the windows have been blown out.

During the fiercest battles, he could not use his front door, only a couple hundred metres from Israeli watchtowers guarding the Gush Katif settlement bloc. He had to climb a ladder to the first-floor balcony at the back of the building.

“For years I built their homes, and for years they destroyed mine,” said Abu Saed, sitting in front of his house as children played nearby.

He started out in construction in the early 1970s in Yamit, a Jewish settlement in the Sinai peninsula, which Israel captured from Egypt in the 1967 Middle East War and gave up in 1982 as part of a peace treaty.

For almost 30 years, he built for Israelis. He said he worked on the Israeli Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv. And when Israel took away his work permit at the start of the first Palestinian uprising in 1987, he found work in the Jewish settlements going up within sight of his Gaza home.

The army said about 3,500 Palestinians had jobs in the settlements, working in hundreds of greenhouses or in construction.

Last week, Abu Saed watched from his rooftop as bulldozers razed the nearest settlement, Rafiah Yam, one of several Gaza enclaves demolished in recent days.

He said that for a builder, it is painful to look at piles of rubble. The destruction was reminiscent of the large-scale Israeli house demolitions in the Rafah camp during offensives against militants the past five years.

Now, all the settlers are gone, and the Israeli army is soon to follow.

Many Palestinians worry about what is to come. Several key issues, including Gaza’s border crossings, airspace and access to the sea, remain unresolved, and for now they will remain under Israeli control.

“They are going to get out of Gaza and close the door on us,” said Abu Saed.

He also is angry with the Palestinian Authority, complaining of mismanagement and neglect of southern Gaza, hard-hit by the fighting.

Walking through his neighbourhood, he pointed to heaps of trash blighting the area. Few roads in the Rafah camp are paved, most buildings carry the scars of war, and sewage runs through the streets.

So what is his plan?

Abu Saed said he would like to follow Israel’s example and move out.

“The settlers left, now it’s my turn,” he said.

Associated Press

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