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Kidnapping
of foreigners phenomenon in Gaza Strip
Posted By Mahmoud Labadi
Kidnapping of foreigners in the Gaza strip has become a plaguing phenomenon. Foreign aid-workers and 12 foreign journalists, some of them from friendly countries have been kidnapped and exchanged for lucrative ransom since 2004. Kidnappers belonging to different gangs and militias negotiate even with the Palestinian Authority officials to be inscribed on the pay roll of the Palestinian Police or the National Security forces as a ransom. Unfortunately, their criminal acts are rewarded, and as long as they impose their will on the government, and their crimes remain unpunished, we have to expect more of such criminal acts.
PA officials are not tough enough to clamp down on those kidnappers for several reasons. They could belong to big families or clans who are better armed than the PA security police. Their relatives could be influential in the PA Security hierarchy, and therefore they enjoy some kind of protection. The blackmailed money could be distributed to finance private businesses. With the weak security in the Palestinian territories, there is always incentive for the potentially lucrative kidnapping of foreigners.
On the other hand, the acts of kidnapping have political as well as economic dimensions. The political dimension goes to the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike the West Bank population who, in spite of the hundreds of checkpoints have a larger space of movement, the people in the Gaza-Strip live in very difficult and inhuman conditions. Almost 1.4 m. Palestinians are squeezed in a narrow territorial strip, equals 360 square km, the most densely populated area in the world. Like a big prison, the Gaza strip has only two border-crossing points: one in the North which opens to Israel and the second in the South and opens to Egypt. Both crossings are under the mercy of Israel.
Economically speaking, the Gazan economy is totally dependent on the Israeli economy as well as the working class in Gaza are rely totally on the Israeli working market. With the outbreak of the Intifada (uprising) in the year 2000, the Israelis closed their border crossing and the Gazan population were deprived of their main source of living.
Gaza’s small agricultural land was either bulldozed by Israeli tanks in the framework of collective punishment measures, or was strangled by continuous closures of the border crossings. So the only remaining employer left is the Palestinian Authority, as the only guarantor for their daily bread .
The PA has already employed more than 165.000 employees in the West Bank and Gaza, but it cannot employ the whole Palestinian working populace. The private sector has been paralyzed and is incapable of absorbing the growing influx of young laborers.
The donor countries have imposed a financial embargo on the PA since the advent of Hamas to the PA government. The PA Budget is incapable to live up to its responsibilities. Israel withholds Palestinian tax money as a means of collective punishment. The Palestinian Authority failed to pay regular salaries to its employees and the Palestinian economy is on the verge of collapse.
Similar phenomenon exists in the West Bank with the Al Aqsa brigades who did not resort to kidnapping yet, as is the case with Gaza, but undertake violent actions against Israeli targets. The major human demand of those unemployed youth is to get out of their miserable situation and find a decent job. This is supposedly to be the responsibility of the Palestinian government which suffers from international sanctions and boycott imposed by the Quartet . Since all other economic sectors are paralyzed, there is nothing left for the Palestinian youth, but to be included in the pay roll of the PA police or security forces. Not because they want to play the police man , but merely as a source of living. Most of those young people who turned to become uncontrolled elements, extremists, or “terrorists” suffer from unemployment. A great majority of them have been working in Israel as skilled or unskilled labor. They are not highly educated people, nor are they university graduates with academic degrees. However, they constitute a fertile ground for potential violence and extremism. With such a desperate situation they can easily engage in violent actions against the Israeli targets, kidnapping foreigners, or volunteer for suicidal operations.
This frustrated and unemployed young Palestinian generation with the unfulfilled promises of the peace process are left without a shimmer of hope. They are the real victims of the successive closures and other repressive measures undertaken arbitrarily by the Israeli Authorities. Moreover, they are disappointed and angry at the Palestinian government for its failure to meet their basic demands, whether it comes from Hamas or from the Fatah-PLO factions. Palestinian civil society is also upset at the Palestinian government and leadership.
Demonstrations and strikes took place in Ramallah criticizing the government and condemning the kidnapping phenomenon. Palestinian journalists staged in solidarity with the BBC correspondent Allan Johnston a three day strike. They decided to boycott the news coverage of the Government and the Presidency, which happened to take place during the official visit of Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the U.S. Congress to President Mahmoud Abbas in the Mukata’a, the Presidency compound.
Nevertheless, the kidnapping of innocent people working for humanitarian aid organizations or working as journalists to cover the events in Gaza is a criminal act and has to be condemned and punished regardless of the motives or the justification of the committed crime. To subject innocent people to such inhuman conditions, and to expose their lives to danger is a crime that cannot be tolerated. It is contradictory to the ethics, morality and hospitality tradition of the Palestinian people.
Needless to say that such kidnappings harm the image of the Palestinian people and likewise for the PA leadership, whether Presidency or Government. They will loose their credibility amongst their own people and in front of the world public opinion. It is true that the government and the presidency cannot solve this crucial problem on their own.. They are definitely incapable of uprooting this kidnapping phenomenon alone. The help of influential governments around the world, mainly in Europe, Japan, Russia and the U.S. is badly needed. The Quartet countries have to reassess their restrictive policies towards Palestinians and help in solving pertinent economic and political issues.
However, the evil of kidnapping and insecurity on the ground should be the main task of the Palestinian Government and Presidency, and they need to tackle this plague by themselves.
* Mahmoud Labadi served as the spokesperson of the PLO in Lebanon until 1983. He was the director general of the Palestinian Legislative Council until his retirement in 2005.
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