Yeah. Get used to it...
NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip (AFP) - Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei surveyed the wreckage of Israel's former Gaza Strip settlements after his government was handed control of the whole territory. As locals continued a looting spree the day after Israeli troops left the territory, Qorei urged the Palestinian people to protect the land and infrastructure bequeathed by their occupiers, and build for the future.
A little louder, Ahmed. They can't hear you over the riot noise...
The looting and chaos at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, where control has effectively broken down, illustrates the huge task facing the Palestinian leadership to reverse the fortunes of the impoverished strip of coastal land. The international community has placed major stock in the pullout, hoping it can help revive the ailing peace process and put an end to bloodshed that has claimed some 5,000 lives over the last five years, mainly Palestinian.
UN General Secretary Kofi Annan congratulated both Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and the pullout's architect Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, as the world body prepared to host new talks on the peace process.
Thanks, Kofi. That'll help loads. As usual...
"Please protect this land. It is for you and yours to protect," Qorei said as he toured the main Gush Katif settlement bloc in southern Gaza which housed 15 of the 21 former Jewish enclaves.
In some of the settlements, security forces half-heartedly tried to expel looters but stopped short of using force or confiscating their booty.
Hey! Stop that! Save some for me when I get off shift!
"The (Israeli) tanks destroyed our farms. The Palestinian Authority is all talk and no action," said one looter as he ripped out a 10-foot (three-metre) irrigation hose in Netzer Hazani while others made off with the tarpaulin covering of greenhouses which had been handed over to the Palestinians.
Now we do it ourselves! Self government is a great thing!
People living in nearby towns such as Rafah and Khan Yunis, long barred from entering Gush Katif, ransacked the settlements on Monday. Synagogues which Israel refused to destroy were torched, tiling and piping carted off and the handful of municipal buildings left intact were vandalised. Qorei attributed the scenes of chaos to the pent-up fury felt by people towards their former Israeli neighbours who lived in relative luxury, denying that it exposed any weakness from the Palestinian Authority.
Yeah...pent up fury! That's it!
"This is not a matter of weakness. It is people expressing their feelings that the situation should be changed," he told AFP.
Yeah...expresing their feelings! That's it!
"They wanted access to see there is no more occupation and no more settlers in Gaza," he added. "The nightmare has left."
Oh, I think the nightmare has just started myself...
The mayor of Khan Yunis predicted that the looting would soon die out."Yesterday was horrible, today is less bad and tomorrow will be taper off even more," Osama al-Sarra told AFP.
...as there will be nothing left to loot.
Among their more immediate challenges is how to deal with the situation at Rafah where people were moving back and forth at will between Egypt and Gaza with holes punched through the metal and barbed-wire security fence. On Monday, a Palestinian was shot dead and another wounded as hundreds stormed the Gaza-Egypt buffer zone just hours after Israeli troops withdrew.
Well it looks like we know how Egypt will handle that "immediate challenge"...
Under an agreement with Israel, Egypt has been deploying a 750-strong force to take security responsibility for the border, in an operation to be completed by the end of this week. The torching of several synagogues has angered if not surprised the Israeli government, which ultimately decided it would be better for the Palestinians to demolish them rather than the forces of the Jewish state. The images filled the front-pages of Israeli newspapers on Tuesday, raising fears of possible revenge attacks on mosques.
Oh, no! It's "Muslim oppresssion" time again!
Israel's chief Sephardic rabbi, Shlomo Amar, said he may ostracise any Jew who damages a mosque to avenge the ransackings, as police strengthened surveillance around Muslim places of worship.
They torch synagoges, we protect their mosques.Think there's a moral in there someplace?
Amid the continuing fallout from his disengagement plan, Sharon left for New York where he is to address the UN General Assembly and milk plaudits for his pullout.
Nice dig, AFP. I knew you couldn't let him slide... |
RAMALLAH - Former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei has decided to abandon his bid for a seat in parliament less than two weeks after resigning to contest, senior Palestinian officials said on Friday.
Deputies yesterday called on President Mahmoud Abbas to sack the Cabinet for failing to stamp out chaos in the streets as Palestinian policemen stormed into Gazaâs Parliament building to demand a crackdown on militants. The Palestinian Parliament ordered Abbas to appoint a new government because of the current regimeâs failure to impose order on spiraling chaos in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The surprise vote came shortly after dozens of armed policemen burst into Parliament to protest against massive insecurity one day after the first deadly internecine clashes since Israel left the Gaza Strip last month.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas faced a brewing political crisis yesterday as he scrambled to quell chaos in Gaza following Israelâs withdrawal from the territory. Lawmakers submitted a request for a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister 
