Hamas humanitarian crises

Posted on 12/01/2008 by Soccerdad

A few weeks ago Hamas engineered a blackout of Gaza, apparently for propaganda purposes. Now its latest stunt is to deny pilgrims from going on Hajj to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia sets quotas to different regions for the number of pilgrims they can send to Mecca each year. Gaza is allowed to dispatch about 3,000.

Abbas’ Palestinian Authority and Gaza’s Hamas rulers each submitted separate lists of Gaza pilgrims to the Saudi authorities for visa approvals, but so far Saudi Arabia has rejected the Hamas list.

Hamas officials were defiant on Sunday, saying nobody would leave until those who applied through the Gaza government are given visas by Saudi Arabia.

“The priority is for those who registered with us,” said Hamas official Abdullah Abu Jarbou. “It is not for those who bypassed the legitimate government. They didn’t go through the legal channels.”

This is priceless. And remember that Egypt is at peace with Israel.

In a sign of a widening rift with regional Arab countries, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said the ban damaged “the reputation of (the) Islamic movement.”

So firing rockets at civilians and Israel doesn’t damage Hamas’s reputation, but preventing pilgrims from travel does. And if it were Israel that was stopping the pilgrim, I imagine that Egypt’s Foreign Ministry would have been a lot more emphatic.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

About Soccerdad

I'm a government bureaucrat with delusions of literacy.
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One Response to Hamas humanitarian crises

  1. Sammy Finkelman says:
    12/01/2008 at 6:46 pm

    >> registered with us,” said Hamas official Abdullah Abu Jarbou. “It is not for those who bypassed the legitimate government. They didn’t go through the legal channels.” <<

    So Hamas is insisting it is the legal government. I remember there was another dispute earlier. Abbas and Hamas were fighting over which two days of the week were the weekend. I think Abbas said Friday and Saturday and Hamas said Thursday and Friday.

    Link

    I am not sure how that turned out.

    The workers actually are paid by Abbas -otherwise the ATM machines don’t work.

    (Do you realize that Israel – or Israel and the PA – controls what money is in the accounts at the ATM machines in Gaza?)

    I think a lot of them obeyed Abbas. And did not come in to work on Saturday.

    I can’t find out what happened.

    This story is from June 2007:

    Link

    Your webpage covered this in July 2007:

    http://www.yourish.com/2007/07/05/3390id=1360

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