Disengagement’ Affords Some Relief for Gaza Fishing Enclave

"When the settlers were here, I was prevented from fishing (...) The situation is a lot better but we are still forbidden from using boats, so the fishing is tough".

Written approximately a month after Israel's disengagement from Gaza, Jon Elmer's article published in The New Standard on 14th October 2005 points to: i) the restrictions on the freedom of goods (and movement) between the Gaza Strip and Israel, through the back to back transportation system (by which goods are unloaded from one truck at the checkpoint and reloaded onto another truck on the other side), resulting in spoiled produce (fresh fish cannot wait at chekpoints!) or inflated prices for merchandise; ii) the lack of free passage of goods from the Strip of Gaza to the outside world, that is the lack of export markets on which fishers are dependent for their survival, and; iii) the continuous restrictions on Palestinian boats in the sea off Al Mawasi (the Gaza Fishing Enclave the article focuses on). Unless these restrictions are overhauled, the disengagement will have little effect on Gazan fishermen' livelihood and the local economy.