Mid East oil potentates look on as Gaza's sole power plant shuts down

Arnold/Frimet Roth
This Ongoing War: A Blog
08 August '10

We're witnessing one of those too-rare moments where the undoubted suffering of ordinary Arabs is 100% caused again by the arrogance and apathy of their own leaders. The difference this time is that no rational onlooker can fix the blame on Israel.

There's a striking irony about yesterday's shut-down: in the midst of a fierce heat-wave impacting Israel and our neighbours, Gaza's air-conditioners are dead because... they don't have enough oil. Oil.

Here's the AP report:

Engineers shut down Gaza City's sole power plant on Saturday because of a lack of fuel, switching off electricity to some half a million people in the midst of a heat wave. The fuel for the plant is supplied by the rival Palestinian government in the West Bank, which says it has reduced shipments because Gaza's Hamas government is behind on payments... For the past few months the plant has supplied just six to 10 hours of power a day because of the ongoing problems with getting enough fuel from the West Bank government... Gazans who can afford to buy generators use them to supplement the shortage.

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