Israeli siege on Gaza destroying fishing industry

Date: 12 / 04 / 2008 Time: 11:19
Gaza – Ma'an -

Hundreds of Palestinian boats are docked in the port of Gaza. Trapped by the Israeli siege on the coastal strip they are unable to put to sea. The Israeli blockade means there is no fuel to power the boats and the boatmen stand around the port, uncertain of their future. They have little hope that the crisis will end soon.

For Abu Taysir, a 56-year-old fisherman, the sea has always been his livelihood. "This crisis is not something new for fishermen because before the Israelis didn’t allow us to go further than eight miles out to sea. That caused a big problem that we were not able to work except within those narrow boundaries. But today, more than 400 fishermen are not able to fish at all because of fuel shortages and the lack of spare parts for boats damaged as a result of the ongoing Israeli harassment," he said.

"We know that in our profession we face many risks and we accept that as long as we are able to continue our work, but they are strangling us and we are unable to do anything about it," he added.

The President of the Assembly of Fishermen, Abu Hani Al-'Asi, said that more than 300 fishing boats are lined up in the port and are unable to work due to the fuel shortages. Any fuel available is prohibitively expensive. there is fuel it is sold for very high prices, According to Al-'Asi Israeli naval forces harass the fishermen, often detaining or even throwing them into the sea so they are forced to swim back to shore.

"I am the head of a family of nine and each of us has seven or eight children. I can no longer earn a living to support them. Without fuel I can't work and when there is fuel the Israeli forces harrass us," he said.

He appealed the Arab States and human rights organizations to intervene to end the crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.