2007年VOA标准英语-Gaza Economy on Verge of Collapse as Rice Visit

By Jim Teeple
Gaza City
01 August 2007

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will hold talks on Thursday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an effort to revive the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians and bolster¹ the moderate government of Mr. Abbas. Mr. Abbas's Fatah forces lost control of the Gaza Strip in June, after Islamic militants² of Hamas seized power in the territory. Fatah now controls only the West Bank. Since then, Gaza's economy has been virtually shut down because Israel, citing security concerns, has closed the borders to the strip. VOA's Jim Teeple recently visited Gaza where he filed this report on an economy under siege.

Life is hard and getting harder in the Gaza Strip. Some street vendors³ are protesting that Hamas Islamic militants put them out of business as part of a crackdown on illegal activities in Gaza. Hamas seized power in June. Since then order has prevailed on Gaza's once chaotic⁴ streets. But many residents complain that the cost of security is too high.

In addition, Israel closed its borders with Gaza because Israel, like much of the international community, considers Hamas a terrorist organization. Gaza's borders with Israel have been closed to everything except humanitarian⁵ assistance.

Since the Hamas takeover, economic life has ground to a halt in much of Gaza. More than 70 percent of Gaza's factories have closed since Hamas took over. Nasser el Helu is one of Gaza's most prominent businessmen. He says soon Gaza's private sector⁶ will be gone - and with it, a rare pillar of stability in the volatile⁷ strip.

"We as businessmen in Gaza, together with the businessmen in Israel, represent the last bridge that can keep the relationship between these two nations," he said. " So if the economy in Gaza collapses⁸, this bridge will be removed from the map. This should not be done and avoided in order to keep the last thread between the two nations."

Just a few weeks ago, Hamas fighters and gunmen belonging to the Palestinian faction⁹ Fatah, battled it out across Gaza. Now Fatah has retreated to the West Bank.

With Hamas in control of Gaza and the factional fighting over, people there can once again venture out. But few have any money to spend. More than 68,000 people have lost their jobs, and unemployment is reaching record levels. Eighty percent of Gaza's residents now receive emergency food aid from the United Nations.

Ahmed Yousef is a senior Hamas leader in Gaza. He warns there will only be more instability if Gaza's borders are not reopened. He says, for now, Hamas will not recognize Israel or renounce¹⁰ violence which the international community is demanding as a pre-condition for opening relations with the group.

"I hope that the U.S., Israel and the world community will learn from what happened in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places where you have occupation and where you have people resisting occupation. As Palestinians, we have been under this kind of pressure for six decades now," said Yousef. "If the world will help us to end the occupation that is fine, but if not we will stick to our resistance."

Palestinians carry flour outside a United Nations food aid distribution center in the Jebaliya Refugee Camp, northern Gaza Strip, 18 July 2007

The Palestinian business community is not alone in complaining about Gaza's borders being closed. A number of Israeli businesspeople who import large quantities of agricultural commodities from the Gaza Strip have called on their government to reopen the main cargo¹¹ crossing point known as Karni. Non-governmental organizations like the Israeli human rights group, Gisha, have also called on Israel to reopen Karni. Sari Bashi, Gisha's executive director, says reopening Karni would be easy.

"Israel has legitimate¹² security interests in protecting its personnel at Karni crossing, but those security interests are being used as a pretext¹³ to keep Karni closed. Karni can be opened; people in the private sector have offered to secure the crossings to coordinate¹⁴ re-opening the crossings but they need Israeli cooperation in order to do so," said Bashi. "Israel needs to make a declaration that it intends to open Karni and once it does that there will be plenty of people to cooperate."

But Israeli officials disagree. Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry¹⁵, says Israel is making sure that plenty of humanitarian assistance is reaching Gaza, but he says it is unrealistic to think that Israel will reopen the crossings to commercial activity at the present time.

"We would like to have all the crossings up and running. We've got no interest in seeing any economic hardship in Gaza. Unfortunately, one day we woke up in the morning and we didn't see Palestinian security on their side of the crossing," said Regev. "We saw armed Hamas gunmen, a lot of them in ski masks. And the idea that a terrorist group [Hamas] that holds an Israeli soldier hostage, a group that shoots rockets into Israel, that sends suicide bombers¹⁶ into Israel would be in charge of security is something that is totally unworkable. "

Regev says Israel is looking for solutions to the problem, such as getting a third party involved in managing some the crossings, including Karni. But he says that as long as Hamas remains¹⁷ in control of Gaza, Israel will not change its policy of keeping the crossings closed to all but humanitarian traffic.

1 bolster   

n.枕垫；v.支持，鼓励

参考例句：

• The high interest rates helped to bolster up the economy.高利率使经济更稳健。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

2 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

3 vendors   

n.摊贩( vendor的名词复数 )；小贩；（房屋等的）卖主；卖方

参考例句：

• The vendors were gazundered at the last minute. 卖主在最后一刻被要求降低房价。
• At the same time, interface standards also benefIt'software vendors. 同时，界面标准也有利于软件开发商。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

4 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

5 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

6 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

7 volatile   

adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质

参考例句：

• With the markets being so volatile,investments are at great risk.由于市场那么变化不定，投资冒着很大的风险。
• His character was weak and volatile.他这个人意志薄弱，喜怒无常。

8 collapses   

折叠( collapse的第三人称单数 )； 倒塌； 崩溃； （尤指工作劳累后）坐下

参考例句：

• This bridge table collapses. 这张桥牌桌子能折叠。
• Once Russia collapses, the last chance to stop Hitler will be gone. 一旦俄国垮台，抑止希特勒的最后机会就没有了。

9 faction   

n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争

参考例句：

• Faction and self-interest appear to be the norm.派系之争和自私自利看来非常普遍。
• I now understood clearly that I was caught between the king and the Bunam's faction.我现在完全明白自己已陷入困境，在国王与布纳姆集团之间左右为难。

10 renounce   

v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系

参考例句：

• She decided to renounce the world and enter a convent.她决定弃绝尘世去当修女。
• It was painful for him to renounce his son.宣布与儿子脱离关系对他来说是很痛苦的。

11 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

12 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

13 pretext   

n.借口，托词

参考例句：

• He used his headache as a pretext for not going to school.他借口头疼而不去上学。
• He didn't attend that meeting under the pretext of sickness.他以生病为借口，没参加那个会议。

14 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

15 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

16 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。