Blockade Forces Gaza Car Dealer To Sell BMWs Only To Wealthy

Israel allows in only those goods and materials that have no clear military use, but limits the quantity thereof to however much the people of Gaza want to bring in and pay for.

Rafah, August 13 – An entrepreneur in this Palestinian-ruled coastal territory who earns his living via the importation and retail sale of German luxury vehicles again voiced his displeasure today over the Israeli security measures that restrict the movement of certain goods and materials into the territory, lamenting that because of those restrictions, he only has enough stock to provide for rich Gazans such as those connected to the governing Hamas movement, and cannot also purvey his high-end automobiles to the less-well-off.

Hassan Masri, 50, owns and operates the Al-Abbas BMW-Merecedes-Benz dealership with branches in both this southern city on the Egyptian border and farther north in Gaza City itself. The father of six and brother-in-law of a senior Hamas figure confided to journalists this morning that he would love to sell his luxury vehicles to many more residents of the Gaza Strip, where 40% of the population has no regular employment, but Israel maintains a coastal blockade and both Israel and Egypt exert tight control over the movement of goods into the territory through the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings, respectively. Israel allows in only those goods and materials that have no clear military use, but limits the quantity thereof to however much the people of Gaza want to bring in and pay for.

“I used to be able to import a few units through the smuggling tunnels via Rafah,” recalled Masri, “but Egypt destroyed most of those passages a few years ago, and Egypt keeps its crossing closed a lot more than Israel does theirs, though you wouldn’t know it from media coverage. Now I can only bring in as many cars as I want, no more than that, and I’m forced to restrict the sale of those cars to the people who can afford them. It’s stifling, this siege.”

For now, Masri assured reporters that his livelihood has not suffered from the blockade so far, but he still harbors concerns over the future. “At some point the international community might come to its senses and stop writing blank checks to the Palestinian leadership,” he worried. “That will mean the aid funds they skim or siphon will dry up, and as a function of that, so will their capacity or willingness to lay out the cash for the latest BMW roadster or Mercedes Maybach. I have no guarantee my business model will prove sustainable in the long run if that happens in the next few years.”

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