20-Aug-10: Some more things that Hamas is good at

Lauren Booth empathizing with Gaza's hungry masses

Yesterday we wrote about one thing that Hamas is really good at. Readers of this blog know we make no secret about belonging to the camp that holds that Hamas is extremely bad at a long list of things. (We have our reasons.) The Hamas leadership is among the ugliest to have ever ground its foot on the heads of the people it pretends to lead.

Now, today, there are small signs of a public pushing back by some of those Palestinian Arab Gazans. How much of a push-back remains to be seen.

Homeless Gazans seize Hamas government building 

By Nidal al-Mughrabi
Fri Aug 20, 2010 10:25am GMT
GAZA (Reuters) - Forty families whose houses were destroyed in conflict with Israel took over a building belonging to Gaza's Hamas rulers this week in a sign of dissatisfaction with the Islamist movement's failure to provide shelter. Angered by living in tents for two winters and now baking in the midst of an intense heat wave, the squatters took over the unfinished apartment house and have already resisted one police effort to evict them. "The heat and cold hurt our children. Where are you?" read a banner pasted on the wall of the building, in the first overt move against government property since Hamas seized power strip in 2007, ousting forces loyal to the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Bassam Jamil, one of the squatters, said 43 families had moved into the building which was still under construction in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip. It belongs to the Hamas-run housing ministry. "We have lost faith that anyone will rebuild our homes. We have taken shelter in the building from the heat in the tents we've been living in," Jamil said. Thousands of homes and factories were destroyed by Israeli bombing and shelling in a 3-week offensive in Dec-Jan 2008-09 against Hamas militants, to stop them firing rockets at Israeli towns close to the Gaza Strip. International donors pledged nearly $5 billion in reconstruction aid but no money has arrived, partly because of the feud between Hamas and Fatah. Israel's blockade of the territory also restricts supplies of cement and steel, which it says could be used for military purposes by Hamas. Earlier this week, Hamas police tried to evict the families but were confronted with resistance by women and children. The building has 44 unfinished apartments. The squatters say they are still better than tents. They have fitted their own doors and are now asking city authorities to turn on electricity and water.

The Gazans, as opposed to most of the world's media, know perfectly well that Gaza is not "the world's largest prison". Far from it. The narrow coastal strip has sleek restaurants, luxurious stores, extravagant villas, current model cars, a lavish lifestyle... but this, of course all depends on who you are. But why spend so many words on explaining. Let the images speak for themselves. Please spend 8 minutes watching a video that will place today's anti-Hamas demo into perspective and, by way of bonus, perhaps might also provide a different way of thinking about that thoughtful and dedicated human rights activist Lauren Booth.

The video clip is here. You might be surprised by what you see.



Hamas is good at selling out its own people. It's very good at sacrificing the future of its subjects' children in the name of bitter age-old hatreds and prejudice. And it is simply outstanding, world class, at denying reality and forcing a vicious religious ideology down the throats of simple people.