Paul Alster
Special to IPT News
http://www.investigativeproject.org/3915/the-truth-about-hamas-smuggling-tunnels
The general narrative of the situation in Hamas-controlled Gaza is of
a people under siege, deprived of everyday goods, whose only means of
receiving sufficient supplies is through the network of tunnels that
bring a wide range of essential items from Egypt.
In fact, Israel delivers an
average of 300 truckloads of goods each day through official crossing
points to the Gaza Strip, basic supplies that provide steady, if
unspectacular amounts of necessary items to the 1.6 million inhabitants
of the Hamas-controlled enclave. The majority of everyday commodities as
well as luxury items and, most significantly of all, drugs, explosives,
and military hardware, come through the tunnels. They are run by a band
including multi-millionaire Gazan businessmen often making vast amounts
of money, and critically, paying taxes/bribes to Hamas to allow free
passage of all goods.
A senior Israeli Defense Force officer, speaking exclusively to the
Investigative Project on Terrorism on condition of anonymity, explained
why that continues.
"Why don't Hamas pressure Israel to open more crossing points?" the
officer asked. "The only crossing they insist that is open is Rafah,
[the border between Gaza and Egypt], because that is a sign of
sovereignty and is an international border crossing point between two
countries. We are willing to transfer more goods at Nitzan crossing and
Kerem Shalom crossing, but that is something they [Hamas] are not
encouraging."
If goods flowed more freely into Gaza there would be no need for the
tunnels. So it is in Hamas' interest to paint a picture suggesting a
"population under siege" that would suffer without the tunnels bringing
in food and goods. It's a story non-governmental agencies lap up and
repeat throughout the world in their solicitations. The import of
illegal weapons and contraband is rarely mentioned in that narrative.
Last summer, 16 Egyptian border policemen were killed
by Islamist terrorists based in Sinai who later managed to breach the
Israeli border before being overwhelmed by a combination of Israeli Air
Force and army units. This attack, understood to have included weapons
that originated from the Libyan conflict of the previous year, was a
wake-up call to Egypt's new Muslim Brotherhood government. Although it
is Hamas' parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood may recognize that
it, too, is now a potential target for the weapons smuggled through
Gaza's tunnels, some of which have been acquired by Al Qaeda-inspired
terrorists now moving with impunity throughout the Sinai Peninsula's
Bedouin tribes. These fanatical terror cells seek nothing less than
achieving the introduction of strict Islamic law in Egypt, Africa's most
populous Muslim nation.
That might explain a recent crackdown on the tunnels from a somewhat
surprising source; Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim
Brotherhood, expected by most Gazans to offer them significant support,
but who now appears shaken by the growing threat from Sinai and other
major factors as he struggles to cling on to power.
On Monday, the Times of Israel reported
that Egyptian security forces had surprised border smugglers around the
Rafah crossing by deliberately pumping water into tunnels, flooding
them and making them vulnerable to collapse.
This could be the first real indication that Egypt is responding to
international pressure, Gaza-based political analyst Mkhaimar Abu Sada
told the IPT.
"It is true that the U.S. Congress is not happy with the situation
happening between Egypt and Gaza," Abu Sada said, "and members of the
U.S. Congress have been asking Egyptian secret services to take much
more decisive measures to block the smuggling of weapons and explosives
from Sinai to Gaza, and also to put an end to the tunnel business
between Gaza and Israel. The Egyptian government will have no other
choice but to do something to please the US and the international
community, because at the end of the day if Egypt doesn't take decisive
measures it will lose some of the international funding from the US and
the Europeans."
Many tunnel operators are getting worried.
"I know for a fact that the Egyptians have been making it harder for
the Palestinians to smuggle over the past two weeks" Abu Sada said. "It
seems to me that the Egyptian authorities are trying to tell Gazans that
commodities that are allowed to enter the strip from Israel must not be
smuggled from Egypt into Gaza. They are only allowing commodities that
are prohibited by the Israelis to come from Egypt to the Strip."
If Israel unilaterally decided to double or triple the number of
goods going into Gaza it would completely undermine large sections of
the illegal tunnel economy. That, however, could prompt Hamas to renew
its rocket fire into Israel that has been on hold since the end of the
November's "Pillar of Defense" campaign. In short, Israel is damned if
it does, and damned if it doesn't act on any increased in the transfer
of goods to Gaza.
"If Israel increased the number of trucks entering the Gaza Strip on a
daily basis that would deprive Hamas and its government of collecting
taxes and customs payments that are coming through the tunnels," Abu
Sada explained. "The price the Palestinians in Gaza are paying for
cigarettes and fuel is much, much cheaper than the price they used to
pay when these came from Israel. For example, the price of gas [in Gaza]
is currently one-third of what Palestinians in the Fatah-controlled
West Bank are paying, and cigarettes are half of what Palestinians in
the West Bank are paying."
The tunnels generate $188 million in tax revenues on things like
cigarettes and gas and building materials, Egyptian journalist Sarah A
Topol wrote
in the Bloomberg Business Weekly on Jan. 31. But "the smugglers say
their importance is waning: Access to Israeli goods is improving, and
the Gazan government has begun regulating [taxing] the tunnels, sapping
profits."
So, while the tunnels are essential for transporting illegal arms and
materials into Gaza ready to wage war against Israel, they are also
critical in maintaining the goodwill of poor Gazans by providing them
with cut-price commodities, even with surcharges added by Hamas
officials.
"At the end of the day it is not only food and commodities that are
entering the Gaza Strip, so it will be very difficult to close down the
tunnels completely. These taxes and levies are essential to the economy
of the Hamas government and will never be readily relinquished," Abu
Sada said.
Israeli officials have different views as to why Egypt doesn't fully
open its border with Gaza and allow free movement of goods. The IDF
officer, speaking to the IPT in late-January, suggested that the
Egyptians simply want to keep the whole Gaza situation at arms' length,
rather than take control of the issue.
"The problem is that maybe then they would have to pay more
attention, pay out more money, and take responsibility for the Gaza
Strip if they prevent goods, people and other supplies going through
tunnels. That is something they are not willing to do," he said. "They
have determined that we, Israel, must do that. They do not want any part
of the Palestinian problem on their shoulders. If they stop the tunnel
industry they will have to open more border crossings and let more
supplies in, and that they don't want to do."
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Paul Hirschson suggested that the
idea that the tunnels were kept open for tax collection doesn't
necessarily make sense. "Hamas runs the Gaza Strip," he said. "They
could quite easily impose a tax system on goods coming across the border
with Egypt. If Hamas were to get a deal with the Egyptians to pass
goods on top of the border rather than under it, they could tax the
goods as much as they want. But there are things going through the
tunnels that wouldn't be allowed by the Egyptians anyway, such as drugs
trafficking, human trafficking, and of course, arms trafficking."
Gerald Steinberg, president of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor and a
professor of political studies at Israel's Bar Ilan University is the
author of 'NGOs, Human Rights, and Political Warfare in the Arab-Israel Conflict.' Steinberg has no doubt as to what is behind Hamas' tunnel strategy.
"The Hamas leadership thrives on conflict and of portraying the
situation in Gaza as one of Palestinian suffering. It is created for the
Palestinian leadership by playing the victim card strongly and has been
assisted in that by the NGO network and by the UN human rights
frameworks all working together. They will always exaggerate claims that
they cannot import basic materials, while at the same time seeking to
downplay changes that will actually benefit the population. There is
always a careful play off that Hamas does between allowing materials in
[to Gaza] and playing the victim card."
Steinberg characterizes the on-the-ground situation in Gaza in
relation to the NGO's as one of dangerous and often willful
misinformation by organizations funded, in particular, by
pro-Palestinian European governments. The suggestion is that these
groups have become politicized and are prepared to turn a blind eye to
the highly incendiary issue of illegal weapons trafficking into Gaza in
order to further their own agendas in support of their view of the
downtrodden local population.
Steinberg also feels that Israel has been guilty of being
embarrassingly slow in presenting its case to the international
community. "Part of the problem is the Israeli government's incompetence
in countering these allegations issued by a powerful propaganda
machine. The reason our organization exists is because there was no
counterpoint. The Israeli leadership, until the last year or two, didn't
understand that this was a major threat to national security. This
isolation and boycott process was as powerful as a military process."
Anat Kurz, research director at Israel's Institute for National
Security Studies, agrees with Steinberg's view that NGOs are
misrepresenting the situation in Gaza and are allowing themselves to be
misled by Hamas.
"I think it sounds quite logical" she told the IPT. "I think Hamas is
treading a fine line, because if Egypt resorts to harsher measures with
regard to the tunnels there will be greater or more vocal calls from
the Strip by the people to allow the transfer of goods for daily use.
Hamas will have to be more attentive to such calls. It depends on the
systemic dynamic between Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, what's
going on in the Sinai Peninsula, and of course, Israel. There might be a
change in light of developments on the ground."
Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist with a special interest
in Israeli/Palestinian relations and Middle East politics. He is a
regular contributor to FoxNews.com and the Times of Israel, and blogs at www.paulalster.com
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