Coca Cola to open Gaza factory

[oberliner]

9. Looters strip Gaza greenhouses

NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip — Palestinians looted dozens of greenhouses on Tuesday, walking off with irrigation hoses, water pumps and plastic sheeting in a blow to fledgling efforts to reconstruct the Gaza Strip.

American Jewish donors had bought more than 3,000 greenhouses from Israeli settlers in Gaza for $14 million last month and transferred them to the Palestinian Authority. Former World Bank President James Wolfensohn, who brokered the deal, put up $500,000 of his own cash.

Palestinian police stood by helplessly Tuesday as looters carted off materials from greenhouses in several settlements, and commanders complained they did not have enough manpower to protect the prized assets. In some instances, there was no security and in others, police even joined the looters, witnesses said.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/9331863/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/looters-strip-gaza-greenhouses/#.VJjOx7gGBA

Troubled season for Gaza's greenhouses

Hoping to save the jobs of thousands of Palestinian farm workers, international donors enlisted by former World Bank President James Wolfensohn paid Jewish settlers $14 million on the eve of the pullout from Gaza. The hope was that they would leave behind at least 800 acres of greenhouses, which grew flowers and produce, to be ready for September planting.

But that hope was jeopardized when Palestinian looters damaged many of the greenhouses, stripping them bare, for instance, of computers that the settlers used to monitor crops. Irrigation pumps were stolen, electricity networks paralyzed, and protective sheeting for the hothouses were torn.

Greenhouses covering one-fourth of the land were damaged during looting after the handover, according to Palestinian officials. The inherited farms have the potential to nearly double the output of the local agriculture industry, the largest domestic private-sector income engine in Gaza's $1 billion economy.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1025/p04s01-wome.html

Greenhouse project endangered in Gaza

(Correction: Because of a reporting error, a Page One story Monday about greenhouses in former Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip stated that Israeli settlers sabotaged greenhouses before withdrawing from Gaza in August. The article should have said some settlers dismantled their own greenhouses before leaving, and that Palestinians looted some greenhouses after the Israelis withdrew. A Palestinian official, Mahmoud Abu Samra, asserted to the reporter that Israelis had sabotaged some greenhouses, but he did not provide evidence to substantiate the allegation.)

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/10/31/greenhouse_project_endangered_in_gaza/?page=full