Gaza greenhouses damaged by looters

By Rafael D. Frankel

NEVEH DEKALIM, Gaza—On a flattened sand dune a mile up from the Mediterranean Sea, where some of the world’s finest quality vegetables grew until just over two months ago, all that remains are torn plastic sheets, twisted wire, and metal support beams of a once fertile greenhouse.

Left here by Gaza’s departed Jewish residents and gifted to the incoming Palestinians by American philanthropists who shelled out $14 million to save them, at least hundreds of the approximate 4,000 greenhouses were looted by the Palestinians in the first days of their new found freedom.

Despite pleas from Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Amed Queri, it is clear hundreds, if not thousands of Palestinians here had other priorities and severe damage was done.

Though Palestinian troops are now posted around most of the large greenhouse fields which abut former Jewish towns, much of the expensive equipment was already lifted from the sites.

Water pumps, irrigation lines, and electricity boxes were taken, said Zaki Karim, 51, who worked at greenhouses in the Gadid settlement before the Israelis withdrew from Gaza last month. “All over Gush Katif the greenhouses have been damaged and a lot was stolen from them,” he said, adding that the Palestinian Authority was paying Palestinians who worked in the Greenhouses before to clean up the messes and repair the damage done to sites across the former settlement block.

Many of the former workers were despondent over the damage done to the greenhouses, Karim said. “It’s a big problem for us, it was our work for a long time and it was supposed to help even more people now, but it’s a mess.”

Pvt. Mohamed Cidawi, a Palestinian soldiers who is now assigned guard duty at the greenhouses of the former Katif settlement, said many plastic and canvas coverings and metal support beams for the houses were also stolen or damaged in the looting. Walking through the rows of greenhouses, some damaged and some not, he encountered a boy with a sledge hammer priming to break into an electricity box. “Go away,” he shouted, “if I see you here another time I’ll kick your ass.”

At the greenhouse sites, a few Palestinian police officers claimed that much of the stolen booty was recovered and that it would shortly be returned. When initially asked to view it they agreed before backtracking and saying the goods were off limits to reporters.

For their part, Palestinian Officials have either not bothered to survey how many of the greenhouses were damaged or they are unwilling to say, insisting the damage they did to the homes was minimal and that most of it was inflicted by the departing Israelis.

According to Interior Ministry Spokesman Tawfiq Abu Qusa, around 30 percent of the crop houses which grew mostly tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers were damaged or destroyed by Israel. However according to the World Bank, which facilitated the transfer, Israel left intact 90 percent of the sites.

Pressed on this, Qusa maintained “the Palestinians damaged so little you can’t even count it.”

But at mid-afternoon on a cloudless Monday, Samir Al-Najar, 29, directed a crew of eight workers as they methodically dismantled a half-acre greenhouse in plain sight of all who drove by. From Al-Mawassi, a Palestinian town neighboring this former Jewish settlement, Al-Najar said the land was his family’s from before Israel occupied it in 1967 and that it was his right to do with it as he pleased.

“I want to reorganize the land so we’re clearing it out for now,” he said as two workers struggled together to carry away a stack of tall metal support beams. Asked whether he would sell the materials he was confiscating, he shook his head. “We’ll probably rebuild with them, but I want the greenhouses to be our own, not Jewish ones.”

Standing next to Al-Najar, a boy of 16 smiled with a semi-automatic rifle slung over his shoulder. Looking at the gun, Al-Najar said it was for protection from looters. “There were a lot of people who stole from the greenhouses,” he said. “The Palestinian Authority was here all the time, but they were overwhelmed” by the amount of people and could not stop them.

©2005 Rafael D. Frankel and The New York Daily News