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.





















