Thursday, October 20, 2005

The Greenhouse Effect

Under the headline "Gaza's greenhouses bloom after Israeli withdrawal" AFP (Agence France-Presse) via Yahoo reports:

Gaza Strip farmers have renovated more than two-thirds of the greenhouses left behind after
Israel's withdrawal, creating jobs for some 2,500 agricultural workers, officials said.

Figures published by the Palestine Economic Development Company (PED) show that in the month since Israeli troops left Gaza, Palestinian agricultural workers have refurbished some 2,200 dunams (22 hectares) of greenhouses out of the 3,162 which were transferred to them.

Just over half of the greenhouses were badly damaged and needed to be completely refurbished, while the remainder were only slightly damaged, the company said.

No mention about how the damage came about. That part they save for the end of the article:

Many of the greenhouses were stripped bare by their former Jewish settler owners and pillaged by the Palestinians.

...Under the deal negotiated by James Wolfensohn, an international special envoy for the pullout, the glasshouses and their annual crops of 75 million dollars were to have been handed over in good condition to the Palestinians.

All reported very matter-of-factly without sources--not even a byline to the article.

Meanwhile, the Daily News has a different take on what happened:

A week after they descended like locusts on the greenhouses that Jewish settlers nurtured in Gaza, looters continue to pillage what should be a prize asset for a fledgling Palestinian state.

... The World Bank reported 90% of the greenhouses were intact when the Israelis left. Facts on the ground reveal that much of that bounty is now gone.


According to the AP:

Palestinian police stood by helplessly Tuesday as looters carted off materials from greenhouses in several settlements, and commanders complained they did not have enough manpower to protect the prized assets. In some instances, there was no security and in others, police even joined the looters, witnesses said.

“We need at least another 70 soldiers. This is just a joke,” said Taysir Haddad, one of 22 security guards assigned to Neve Dekalim, formerly the largest Jewish settlement in Gaza. “We’ve tried to stop as many people as we can, but they’re like locusts.”

Maybe the source for the Yahoo article was from the Palestinian Interior Ministry, whose spokesman is quote is quoted in the Daily News article:

Palestinian Interior Ministry spokesman Tawfiq Abu Qusa insisted the damage was limited to 30% of the 4,000 or so greenhouses - and blamed most of the vandalism on spiteful Jewish settlers. "The Palestinians damaged so little you can't even count it," he said.

So 1,200 greenhouses are damaged by Palestinian Arabs--"so little you can't even count it".

As usual, things just don't add up.

Update:
Playing games with the facts is still going on.
See
Myre Fries the Facts on the Gaza Greenhouses at Mediacrity

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