Hamas rule’s grim 10th birthday

Long power cuts, few jobs and little chance of change

BEIT LAHIYA, GAZA // Grim records mark the 10th anniversary of Hamas rule in Gaza – lengthy daily electricity and water cuts, 60 per cent youth unemployment, and a rising backlog of thousands waiting for a rare chance to leave the blockaded territory.

Unable to offer a remedy, the militant group has been indulging in oppression. It has jailed the few who dared to complain, including the young organisers of a street protest against power cuts and an author who wrote on Facebook that “life is only pleasant for Hamas leaders”.

Polls show almost half of the people would leave if they could, but that support for the group, despite three short, devastating wars with Israel, is steady at around a third.

For most of Gaza’s two million people, life is bound to get worse.

The international isolation of Hamas is likely to continue, and with it the border blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the group seized Gaza in June 2007.

A new political programme that Hamas hoped would mollify the West and Arab nations instead underscored its ideological rigidity. While softer in tone, the manifesto reaffirms a call to armed struggle and the creation of an Islamic state in Palestine, including what is now Israel.

Hamas also faces financial pressure from Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, whose forces it drove from Gaza a decade ago. Fed up with failed reconciliation efforts, the West Bank-based Mr Abbas has threatened to cut more Gaza subsidies, such as electricity payments. Hamas spokesman Salah Bardaweel dismissed suggestions Hamas should step aside, but said a deal to improve Gaza’s lot was unlikely

A trio of unemployed friends in their 20s from Beit Lahiya town mobilised thousands in a rare street protest against power cuts in January. They said they were detained, beaten and repeatedly summoned to security compounds.

Activist Mohammed Al Taluli, 25, said pressure built several weeks ago as daily power cuts worsened, with four hours of electricity followed by cuts of 14 to 18 hours. Mr Al Taluli said he and his friends received death threats to deter them from protesting.

“People are asking us every day if we are planning a new demonstration,” Mr Al Taluli said. “But we are afraid.”