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In One Town, Gazans Yearn for Previous Israeli Presence

[Christian Science Monitor] Rafael D. Frankel - Three years have passed since Israel withdrew from Gaza, and in that time the economy has gone from bad to worse. "I want [the Israelis] to come back," says Riyad al-Laham, an unemployed father of eight from Mawassi - a mixed ethnic Palestinian and Bedouin town located in the middle of Gush Katif - who worked in the area's Jewish settlements for nearly 20 years. "All the Mawassi people used to work in the settlements and make good money. Now there is nothing to do. Even our own agricultural land is barren." Before Israel withdrew, Mawassi was a town of fertile corn crops and greenhouses, which - like the ones in the Jewish settlements - grew cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, and strawberries. Now, only shells remain of many of the greenhouses that were stripped of valuable materials. A town that fed itself with its produce and the money its men made from working with the settlers, Mawassi is now dependent on food handouts from the UN.
2008-08-05 08:00:00
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