The million$ of Hama$
In case you were wondering who can afford all those fancy restaurants and shopping malls in Gaza - and how - Maariv discovered over the weekend that Hamas has actually become quite wealthy. The Hamas government income has increased 13-fold over the past five years of "blockade". Hamas pays salaries of 40,000 employees, of whom 21,000 are armed personnel a sum they estimate at $250,000,000 annually. Hamas claims to expend $30,000,000 each year of activities in eastern Jerusalem.Read the whole thing and look at the pie graph. For those who can read Hebrew (I can but don't have the time to translate today), the full article is here. If it gets translated into English, I will try to reblog it.
The PA banking system transfers $1,800,000,000 to Gaza each year since 2007. Iran donates $100,000,000.
The piece, as far as I can read, doesn't provide a final sum and the numbers in the chart represent percentages. But they assert that Hamas has circumvented all attempts to restrict its financial activity and the economic status of the Gaza Strip is not at all critical and in fact, relatively the opposite.
Under siege? You've got to be kidding.
Labels: Gaza plenty, Hamastan
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:20 PM
2 Comments:
My Mac Chrome browser automatically translates the article to English (well it's a machine translation)--might be a Google tool:
Hamas Ltd.: Manufacture of money behind terrorism--
Since the disengagement and takeover of Gaza, Hamas has become a modest organization thriving financial corporation has billions of dollars a year. That's how it works
Eyal Ofer and Ehud Yaari | 04/22/2011 11:04
Siege? Sanctions? No international recognition? Ahtzhaktam the wallets of the heads of the Hamas regime in Gaza. They have their own ways to raise money, and those bounced 13 times their income in five years. Tax on everything that moves, extorting business owners, the Palestinian Authority salaries ghost creative use of international aid. Welcome to Hamastan Ltd., Version 2011: Ahkongolmrt business grows, he has no need for suitcases of dollars in the tunnels...
etc.
these guys get up in the morning and that's their job, being hamas, like the hezzis get up and they do their hezbollah thing and the iranians do their mullah mahdi thing 24/7--they aren't going away, they aren't going to disappear--they can be contained or they can be occupied and subjugated--that's pretty much it. since occupy & subjugate is a no go, certainly as regards hamas as far as israeli policy goes you end up nibbling around the edges w/intermittent "mowing the grass"--plus truces arranged by proxy. negotiating a final settlement (ha ha) w/them is an option that doesn't have to be taken but nobody is talking about sweeping their pieces off the table.
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