Madam, – It is ironic that Proinsias De Rossa (Opinion, February 18th) should write of Palestinians in Gaza wanting to “grow their fruit and their flowers”, as if the lack of such freedom was the fault of Israel and had nothing to do with Hamas.
Within a few weeks of Israel’s withdrawal of its troops and all 9,000 of its settlers in August 2005, the multi-million dollar high-tech greenhouses left behind in good condition by the departing settlers, which could have given a kick-start to the economy of a self-governing Gaza, had been destroyed by Hamas, which set about using them as munitions stores and tunnel entrance covers.
As for “destruction of the economic infrastructure”, has Mr De Rossa ever heard of the Erez Industrial Estate near the Gaza-Israel border, developed in the 1990s, which housed some 200 businesses, both Israeli- and Palestinian-owned, and once employed nearly 5,000 Palestinian workers? This optimistic venture was part of a larger Gaza project that was planned to provide up to 50,000 jobs.
Unfortunately, shortly after the Hamas takeover of Gaza, EIE was forced to close when it became the target of suicide bomb threats and mortar attacks by Hamas and other terror groups. – Yours, etc,