Last Friday, Moshe Ahituv (not his real name) received another call-up from the
Israeli army. A captain in the home front command, he had already completed 43
days of army reserve service this year.
Moshe, 40, is an English teacher
and the father of two toddlers. His wife is a physical therapist and they are
about to purchase their first apartment in Jerusalem. He says the emotional cost
of the fighting in the Gaza Strip has already taken a toll.
“The kids
aren’t sleeping well, and my three-year-old daughter is behaving badly at
nursery school,” he told The Media Line. “It’s also frustrating for me. I spend
a lot of time on buses getting from home to my base. I could be home with the
kids then or working to bring home money to my family.”
There is also an
economic toll. While the government will pay for his missed days at work, he
will not receive compensation for the private tutoring hours he has been forced
to cancel, which amounts to $400 per week.
Israelis and Palestinians are
paying a heavy economic price for the cross-border fighting in Gaza. From orange
trees in Gaza damaged during an Israeli airstrike to small restaurants in
southern Israel who have no customers, to tourists cancelling trips to Israel
and Bethlehem, to destroyed buildings in Gaza, the economic costs on both sides
is astronomical.
The business information company IDI estimates the
fighting in Gaza will cost the Israeli economy $75 million dollars per day in
lost productivity. Many small businesses in southern Israel, in particular, are
suffering.
“Usually on the weekends we are full, but this past weekend we
had just two tables – both of journalists,” Elad Zaritsky, 35, the owner of
Linda, a bistro restaurant in the Mediterranean coastal city of Ashqelon, told
The Media Line. “We’ve already lost thousands of dollars and we simply can’t
continue like this. If the fighting continues much longer, we may have to
close.”
Zaritsky says small businesses like his operate with only a
narrow profit margin. He says the restaurant has been open for five years. Four
years ago, during Cast Lead, Israel’s last major ground operation in Gaza, his
business also suffered. The government did give him compensation, but he says it
did not nearly cover his losses.
Tourism in Israel is also beginning to
suffer, although this is the low season for tourism, between the Jewish holidays
of the fall; and Hanukka and Christmas in a few weeks.
“Incoming groups
for the near future are down 10 percent and individual bookings are down 15
percent,” Ami Etgar, the general director of the Israel Incoming Tour Operator
Association told The Media Line. “But groups that are already here have not
left.”
Across the border, inside Gaza, life has virtually come to a
standstill. While most residents keep a stock of food supplies including flour,
oil, sugar and tea in their homes, most shops and businesses remain
closed.
“Banks are closed and ATM machines are running out of cash,”
Azzam Shawwa, the general manager of the Quds Bank told The Media Line. “But who
wants to risk going out when there are airstrikes?” Shawwa said there is also
concern about the electricity supply to Gaza. While Israel has continued to
provide power to the 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza, the electricity must go
through transformers to change the voltage. Some of those transformers have been
destroyed in Israeli airstrikes, and the spare ones are already being used, he
said.
“Even before this, some places only had electricity for 12 hours a
day,” Omar Shaaban, an economist at Palthink, a Gaza-based think tank told The
Media Line. “Now some places only have electricity for six hours a day. Some of
us have generators, but there is a shortage of fuel for the generators. I just
turned my generator on to answer some emails, but I’m going to have to turn it
off soon.”
Shaaban says it’s too early to assess the economic damage
caused by the Israeli airstrikes, which have killed at least 95 Palestinians and
wounded hundreds. Dozens of buildings in Gaza have been completely
destroyed.
“Our economy is losing at least $2 million dollars per day,”
Shaaban said. “And that’s in addition to the agricultural sector which has
already lost $25 million dollars. The economy has been completely suspended.
Agricultural products were supposed to be exported this week from Gaza, but now
that didn’t happen.”
Back across the border in Israel, more people seem
to be staying home, even in areas that have been relatively free of missile
strikes.
“There are many fewer passengers going from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem,” Raof Basila, an Arab citizen of Israel who drives a shared-taxi
between the two cities. His colleague, Fadi Abu Katish, agrees. He told The
Media Line that while fifty drivers normally transport more than 1,500
passengers each day, the drivers are now alone in their vehicles.
Basila
added a pensive note. “People are afraid to go out,” he said. “It is not good
for either side. Both sides need peace.”
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