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The date, understandably, is etched on his mind. “Our last
delivery of raw materials from Israel was on 28 August, 2007,’ says Rafat
Redaisi. “But for more than a year now the imports we need have been banned.
Before the closure [of Gaza] we used to buy a ton of raw plastic for $2,500. Now
we’re forced to rely on the black market – and we have to pay twice as much for
the plastic.”
Rafat Redaisi is Head of Marketing and Sales at the
Badreddin El-Redaisi & Partners polystyrene and plastics factory in Gaza city,
the largest plastics manufacturer in the Gaza Strip. The factory opened more
than two decades ago, and until recently there were sixty five full time staff,
plus another thirty five at several other smaller subsidiary workshops and
factories owned by the same company. But the workforce has now been halved, and
the remaining staff have had their hours cut back. “Our problem is we don’t have
enough raw materials to work with” says Rafat Redaisi. “We have an order of four
hundred and twenty tons of plastic and polystyrene waiting over the border, in
Ashkelon [in Israel]: it has been in storage there for more than a year, because
we can’t get permission to bring the materials across the border into Gaza – but
we still have to pay storage fees: so instead of making money, we are losing
it.”
Redaisi says plastic and polystyrene are in such short
supply in Gaza that his staff have been forced to ask customers to supply their
own raw materials for the factory to manufacture into finished plastic and
polystyrene products. Badreddin, El-Redaisi & Partners have also been forced to
drastically cut down on the variety of items they produce; going from almost a
hundred different types of plastic and polystyrene containers and packaging to
half a dozen basic models, including water carriers and olive oil containers.
The Gaza Strip has six border crossings, five of which are
directly controlled by Israel. The sixth crossing, at Rafah on the Egyptian
border, has been almost continually closed since June 2006. Israel therefore
controls the movement of goods into and out of Gaza. Its illegal siege and
closure of the Gaza Strip has included mass restrictions on imports and exports,
including imports of vital raw materials for the construction, manufacturing,
textile and furniture industries, as well exports of manufactured products.
Chronic shortages of vital raw materials, plus the continuing widespread ban on
exports from Gaza to the outside world, have both been major factors in the near
collapse of the Gazan economy.
Between June 2007-2008, approximately 42,000 Gazan
construction workers lost their jobs due to the Israeli ban on imports of
construction materials, and the construction sector sustained overall losses
estimated at $58 million. Out of 120 registered construction companies across
the Gaza Strip, just five are still operating. During the same period, wood and
furniture manufacturers and retailers sustained losses of around $110 million,
forcing 600 local furniture workshops and factories to close. In addition, 624
textile and clothing workshops and factories have also shut down, at the cost of
more than 25,000 local jobs. Many of these furniture and textile workshops and
factories were small, family run businesses, which supported and employed entire
extended families. Prevented from traveling outside Gaza, local people have no
viable work alternatives, and unemployment, and chronic poverty, have
subsequently spiraled.
Forty five percent of working age adults in the Gaza Strip
are now officially unemployed, and Gaza has de-developed into one of the most
aid dependent communities on earth. Investors have been forced to either
suspend or else simply cancel projects, including major reconstruction projects,
due to lack of raw materials. Overall investment in Gaza from donors and
corporations has dropped from $250 million in 2005 to a current estimate of
approximately $10 million.
The Tahdiya, or ‘Period of Calm’ agreed between
Israel and Gaza on 19 June this year has made precious little difference to the
stunted economy of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have
permitted the entry of limited amounts of construction materials, like concrete
and aggregate, to enter Gaza in the last three and a half months; but other
materials, including plastics, polystyrene and textiles remain either banned or
else available only in miniscule amounts. The IOF continue to hold the entire
Gazan economy hostage, forcing manufacturers to turn to the now-thriving black
market in order to obtain basic raw materials at inflated prices so they can
stay in business.
“We need about 30 tons of raw materials a month to run the factory at full
capacity” says Rafat Redaisi as he shows us around the factory floor and
adjoining warehouse. “This is one of the busiest times of the year because of
the olive harvest, so we need even more raw materials to make the olive oil
containers. But now we are buying ready-made containers from Israel, and just
selling them on, because we can’t make our own products.” As Israel profits from
its illegal siege of Gaza, Rafat and his colleagues are desperately trying to
keep the factory open. He invites us to see the almost empty two-storey
warehouse, with its straggle of finished products waiting to be delivered across
the Gaza Strip. “More than a year ago, this warehouse was full of manufactured
goods” he says. “But now we have so much empty space in here, we can play
football.”
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