By: Michal Sela.  (transl. by Prof. Israel Shahak)

All are in the same sewage dump. (Excerpt)

In Gaza you do not know where to start the story. From the sea water that rises inside the wells or from the sewage that flows in lakes in the main street of the city, from the beach with its fine sand, or from the poverty hiding behind the house walls, from the success of the chief of the civil administration who convinced the electricity corporation to supply electricity to the majority of the 840,000 inhabitants, in spite of huge debts, or from the point that for the purpose of getting electricity, the Palestinians are a collective, no individuals, and if the current is cut off, it is cut off for everybody, also for those who paid their bills. Or perhaps we should start with the suspicion, the fear and the charges of hatred electrifying the air in invisible waves, between little children and soldiers in patrol cars when both sides think how to get home safe.

Gaza has roused the public interest in the last weeks because of many suspected acts of corruption among civil administration officials in the military government. Those who are less excited, since already used to it, are the Gaza’ites. A high customs official in Gaza, Israel Bukovza, was recently arrested on suspicions of having received benefits. Against another customs employee, Naor Bukovza (no family relationship) court proceedings are going on for a long time. Sami Doron, a frustrated customs employee, complains against people with whom he was working, and the civil administration promises that no complaint will be swept under the carpet.

The commander of the Center for Issue of magnetic cards, a major, was investigated on a charge of getting benefits from his job. After his release from arrest, he was transferred to a job where he is not in touch with the public, till the end of the investigation. Palestinians claim that for a not to high a bribe he used to issue a magnetic card that allows the holder to enter Israel, even to those who are forbidden to do so. The military government confirms that many investigations of suspects in such cases are taking place, but they deny vehemently the possibility of access to the computer software to produce a forged magnetic card.

The Palestinians on their part describe the situation as a system. They complain about "improper" behavior of employees of the administration. The system works usually through Palestinian "mediators" who for some reason got "close" to executives in the military administration and its special branch [Shabak]. These individuals, in return for a promise that they will "settle" the matter, collect money form the inhabitants. When the Village Associations were active in the West Bank, their activists engaged in paid mediation, with the knowledge and approval of the military administration. It is not known how much of the money reaches also the Israeli officials. The Israeli sources assume that most of it remains in the hands of the mediator. There are several Palestinian lawyers, as well as some owners of the local gas stations in the Gaza Strip, who are known as being reliable mediators. Yusef Bahlul, for instance, one of the newly rich men Gaza, who owns also several gas stations, arranged for the daughter of Muhna Shaban a certificate on behalf of the health officer for treatment in the Tel Hashomer Hospital, after her problem could not be treated in the local hospital. When the Israeli authorities are asked why has Bahlul such contacts their answer is: Because he contributes from time to time from his private money for health requirements in the area.

The Gazan lawyers say: The system is rotten on purpose, so that the method of the stick and the carrot, where bribe money plays a big role, could function better. One man – Advocate Farayah Abu Madayn tells – went recently to renew the famous magnetic card, which must be renewed every six months. Come back in December 1999, he was cynically told by the officer at the magnetic cards station. The amazed lawyer returned a day later and asked: Isn’t this a mistake? No, come back on 31st of December 1999. This is a proof of your contempt, humiliation and arbitrary behavior, says Abu Madayn. A long queue is lining up at the office for exit permits to travel abroad. The Jewish clerk caIIed "Miriam" is openly impudent, says Abu Madayn. The impatient applicants must go to a mediator, pay him and get the needed documents delivered directly to their home.

The Gaza’ites are already used to it and dare not to complain on their own initiative, also because they are afraid that they will be punished. People believe that it is an inevitable result of the permanent regime of occupation. This happens when people serve 20 years and more in a system where almost everything is permitted, a system based on a selection of the public into "good ones" and "bad ones" by a secret police, into those who deserve the merits of the authorities and those who do not. It all starts from the pressures of Shabak who grants benefits to collaborators and closes doors to those who refuse their collaboration. It continues with all kinds of governors, who admit mukhtars and other notables to their limited group of insiders. Here the money is not the main thing, but other forms of support. When there is a list of thousands of families who wait for the "humanitarian" mercy of unification of families. and a governor decides, in a superhuman gesture, to put somebody on the top of the waiting list, it is part of the management in the military administration, not a normal public administration. Also granting special documents to dignitaries and to others who are close to the authorities, allowing their holders to pass the roadblocks without a check and to go in the street during curfew, is something that smells bad among the public. In the atmosphere reigning in Gaza, some pay for it with their life. Yussef Kaskin was murdered three months ago as a suspected collaborator. He belonged to the mediators group. In Gaza they say that Kaskin engaged in the approval of building schemes and only those who worked with him got could get a permit to build a house. A month ago Ibrahim Abu Jiba was also murdered. He owned two fuel stations and sold land to the Jewish settlers. He was suspected of getting money from the Israeli officials in charge of the property of people who were declared “absentees". Ahmed AI-Vakil, a former employee of the Gazan car license office, was also killed – so the Gaza’ites claim – because he was suspected of using his status for getting personal benefits by taking greater bribes than usual.

This general corruption is a result of the moral deterioration of authority, of the feeling of power of the Israeli administration – say some lawyers in Gaza who see both sides of the coin when they do their job. This is not a result of five years of Intifada, but of 25 years old rule in which all the organs of the Israeli administration have become totally corrupt and inefficient.