GAZANS PALESTINIAN TURN RUBBLE INTO BIG BUSINESS

Recycling is one of the few options left for Gazans to meet their needs, creating an environment ripe for innovative solutions to common problems.

GAZA, Palestine - After the last invasion of Gaza, huge amounts of rubble covered the coastal enclave, creating a large problem for Gazans. However, as usual, they have an innovative solution.

• During an exhibition, titled Inventions Facing the Siege, in Gaza City on March 23, inventors and business owners came together to discuss ways through which they could take advantage of the remains of buildings following the invasion.
• Abu Al Abed Al Ghefary — owner of a glass factory in the northern Gaza Strip which was partially damaged in the last offensive — is one of the people who is trying to ignore the blockade and take advantage of the war's rubble.
• Al Ghefary buys and collects broken glass to recycle it into decorative pieces.
• "The long years that the Gaza Strip [has] lived under the siege [have] created so much pain, sorrow and need, but on the other hand there is a bright side to this dilemma," Al Ghefary said.
• The Gazan people have learned to live under any circumstances and made accommodations to deal with the difficult situation that the siege has imposed upon them.
• The tunnels between Gaza and Egypt are an example of this determination to succeed. Lack of resources has been a major problem in Gaza since Hamas was elected in the parliamentary elections in 2006.
• The Gaza Strip had been a major market for Israeli products until the siege was put in place. Recycling was not really necessary, as all the necessities and luxuries — were easily available.
• Today, recycling is one of the few options left for Gazans to meet their needs, creating an environment ripe for innovative solutions to common problems.
• Ahmad Hamad, a social researcher and lecturer at the Community College of Applied Science and Technology in Gaza, said: "The recent situation [has] forced the Gazans to change their consumer [habits] and to create a new culture which can fit the different, and difficult circumstances the people are living [under] at the moment."
• The war left a great deal of destruction all over Gaza, with many houses, factories, and farms reduced to rubble.
• Tahsen Al Masri is a blacksmith from Khan Younis in southern Gaza. He started to buy the iron from destroyed buildings, after the invasion, in order to melt and reuse it for different purposes.
• Al Masri said: "Because of the blockade, I couldn't buy the iron to make what I want. Then I found so much rubble because of the war. I started to […] melt it, [and] then use it again and make different usages of it."
• He added: "In the beginning it was hard because I didn't have the experience or the right equipment [for] this process, but now it's much easier for me."
• "This way is much harder [for] me than buying new iron but at the same time, it is cheaper for me, which will make it cheaper for the normal Palestinian citizen."
• Al Ghefary said, "I found it interesting to use this broken glass instead of just throwing it away, and to make something nice out of it... So I started to collect it from people and now I'm making samples of board frames and slabs."

Source: Gulf News