Hamas Shuts Down Factory Because its Canisters are Painted an “Israeli” Color

Israeli boy

Clearly unemployment in Gaza isn’t high enough. So Hamas is working hard to make sure that no one works for a living and that will increase its propaganda mojo. (via Elder of Ziyon)

The more factories Hamas closes, the more poverty it’ll be able to point to the world while demanding that Israel open its borders with Gaza.

Hamas authorities in Gaza have closed a gas canister factory, leaving 45 workers unemployed, over allegations they tried to imitate Israeli-made products.

Factory owner Yousif Sharaf told Ma’an that the authorities sealed off his factory, which produces domestic gas canisters, after inspectors found three canisters painted silver.

“Silver canisters are banned in Gaza because they are produced in Israel. However, one wholesaler managed to get an exemption from the ministry and he imported some 30,000 silver canisters from Israel,” Sharaf said.

As a result of the decision, Sharaf suffered major losses as the market became flooded with Israeli-made gas canisters. The three silver canister found in his factory were samples and not suitable for use.

Sharaf, who has been operating the factory since 1983, condemned the closure of his facility, saying it was unacceptable to make 45 workers unemployed.

Gaza economy ministry officials said that they implement their decisions according to set standards and regulations.

“If a national product matches Palestinian standards, we do not take any procedures against the producers. However, if any breaches to the acceptable standards are reported, we take the needed procedures so as to protect national products,” Abdul-Fattah Mousa, an official in the ministry of economy, said.

“He was informed he must stick to Palestinian standards, but he breached them by painting canisters in unaccepted color,” he added.

Hamas officials keep harping on the color of the canisters which is crazy. You might think that Hamas would welcome someone in Gaza making a cheap knock-off of an Israeli product that they claim not to want in the first place. Instead they insist that a product that looks like an Israeli product is unacceptable because it implies that Israeli products are superior and desirable.

But don’t worry. This isn’t just about pathological antisemitism. It’s also about corruption. Someone got a special exemption to import otherwise banned Israeli products. The knock-offs looked too much like the banned products that had been allowed into Gaza.

While Hamas is pretending that it’s banning the canisters because they look too much like a banned product, they’re actually being banned because they look too much like a product that someone linked to Hamas has a monopoly on.

  • Joe Catron

    We all know FrontPage plumbs the depths of sloppy hasbara, but have you really been reduced to defending counterfeit products? Isn’t there something remotely legitimate you could be whining about instead?

    • OfficialPro

      Counterfeit? Really? You must be joking good sir.

      Nobody’s defending “counterfeit” products. As far as we can tell, the ‘gas canisters’ work like they are supposed to. Gas is gas. What, would Palestinian companies have to put fresh lavender scent in their gas canister formula just to distinguish it or something? And “silver” is the color of many metals, so the objection to the color is rather stupid. They’re METAL canisters! Why would they have to be painted just because of the retardation of the people who run Gaza?

      Also, aren’t you that guy…whatshisname…that keeps posting here about hasbara this hasbara that?

      • Joe Catron

        I gather you don’t know much about gas cylinders, and would venture a guess that you’re an American. In the United States, their color-coding isn’t regulated by law. In much of the rest of the world, it is. Google EN1089-3, for example, to see the new EU standards. And when manufacturers ignore their local requirements, trouble ensues. (shrugs)

        As far as I can recall, I haven’t posted here before. But the site as a whole is eminently forgettable, as the breathless dreck on this page aptly demonstrates, so who knows?

        • m4253y

          don’t be too demonstratively sure of yourself.

        • Everett Vulgamore

          alright, settle down liberal. dont get your panties in a wad over gas canisters. the point behind this article is to state how a terrorist group is blackmailing Israel gradually into letting terrorists just walk into their country. its kinda like the frog experiment, with boiling water in one can, and gradually heated water in another. at least that’s the conclusion i followed through with.

          • Joe Catron

            Excuse me? I don’t believe I’m the one who wrote a breathless, embarrassing article about them. And how did you possibly reach a conclusion like that, from a story about the enforcement of some manufacturing standards … you know what, don’t tell me. I’m probably happier not understanding the thought processes of confused individuals like yourself.

            If anyone who wanders across this site has any interest in facts (a doubtful proposition, I know), this is actually regulated by the Gaza-Jericho Agreement.

            “The color of all gas cylinders in use in the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area shall be different than that in use in Israel.”

            http://asp.alhaq.org/zalhaq/site/eDocs/txtDocs/intl%20law/bilateral/annexii.htm

          • Everett Vulgamore

            if you dont like what is said here, you are more than welcome to leave. and i got to my conclusion because i used the stuff in my head, called brains. you have rocks in the place of brains, so i dont expect you to be able to have foresight

          • Joe Catron

            Your insults are even lamer than your “logic,” chief. :-D

          • Everett Vulgamore

            im a realist. i do what i can. and i have an amazing perception of the obvious.