Gaza could have been a Middle East Singapore. It dug tunnels instead
Singapore’s revolution from an impoverished Third World outpost with no natural resources, no industry, and that relied on its neighbours for energy, food and water was achieved in not much more than a generation. Gaza had the same opportunity, but chose to pass.
By ALAN HOWE
Much of Gaza is in smouldering ruin. And Gazans are to blame. They voted for Hamas and polls show they would do so again, not that they have had the chance lately. Hamas likes to present itself as a resistance movement, but its raison d’etre is the slaughter of Jews – and anyone else who would support Israel’s democracy. Most Gazans agree with that.The Washington Institute – Condoleezza Rice is an adviser, as was Henry Kissinger until his death last month – reported not long before Hamas’s October 7 slaughter of innocents in Israel that 57 per cent of Gazans expressed “a somewhat positive” opinion of Hamas, as did 52 per cent of Palestinians on the West Bank.
The Ramallah-based Arab World for Research and Development on November 14 published the results of a poll it had taken, one question of which was: How do you view the role of Hamas? A total of 48.2 per cent responded “very positively” while 27.8 per cent responded “somewhat positive”. That means 76 per cent of Palestinians support Hamas after its depraved foot-soldiers flooded into Israel in October incinerating families, killing babies, raping men and women they then shot dead, and decapitating with a shovel one woman who fought them off.
Gaza’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, 1800km away at the time, saw it all unfold on Al Jazeera, which he watched in his luxury office in Doha, the capital of Qatar. (The Qatari government funds Al Jazeera, which is best known for its anti-Semitic, anti-American broadcasts and its glorification of Islamic terror.)
The Hamas boss and his 13 children prefer Doha to the challenges of life in Gaza – which he is not-so-slowly destroying from a distance.
Haniyeh reportedly is very wealthy. He is said to profit handsomely from the tunnel smuggling business, which can turn over $600m a year and circumvents the Egyptian and Israeli blockades of Gaza, so the status quo suits him fine. So far he has overseen five wars with Israel: 2008-09, 2012, 2014, 2021 and the one now under way. Every time, Haniyeh uses Gaza’s citizens as human shields – and thousands have died.
Things could have been so different for Gaza. There were proposals for its development that might have seen it on the trajectory that powered Singapore to economic prosperity after 1965.
And they have a few things in common. At independence in 1965, Singapore’s land mass (at low tide) was 578sq km – it has grown to 734sq km since reclaiming marshlands, mangrove swamps and mosquito-infested jungle. But it has many more inhabitants than Gaza with population density of 8330 people per square kilometre.
Gaza is 365sq km and had a population density of about 3600 people per square kilometre when Israel withdrew from the territory in August 2005. Despite constant claims of various genocides committed by Israel there since, Gaza’s population has rocketed and stands at 2,299,000 with a population density of 6507 per square kilometre.
Singapore’s gross domestic product per capita in 1965 was $US517. Last year it was $US87,884 and ahead of the US. The GDP for the West Bank and Gaza was about $US3100 last year – ahead of India but just below Sri Lanka.
Singapore’s revolution from an impoverished Third World outpost with no natural resources, no industry, and that relied on its neighbours for energy, food and water – does that sound familiar? – was achieved in not much more than a generation.
The future of the envied tiger economy was founded on racial and religious tolerance with a radical plan to invite foreign capital – which required political stability – and develop industrial land while investing deeply in education, basic at first but soon leaning towards the technical skills the new industries would need.
Last week the annual OECD Program for International Student Assessment results measuring the mathematical, reading and scientific literacy of 15-year-old students were announced. It rates the education performance of 81 countries: Singapore came out on top. Again.
In 2014 it was estimated that there were 600,000 tonnes of concrete in the smuggling and ammunition tunnels in Gaza. A recent estimate put that at about 725,000 tonnes. To put that into perspective, there are 80,000 tonnes of concrete in Sydney’s Gladesville Bridge whose arch, when it was completed in 1964, was the longest single concrete span in the world. There are 113,000 tonnes of concrete in the Empire State Building.
If you tell Palestinian children that Jews are the descendants of pigs and apes, that they stole your land and that every hardship you face is the direct result of their presence there, this is what you will get.
If you name streets, sporting events and even schools after mass-murdering terrorists and make celebrities of them when they are freed from jail, this is what you will get. If you make role models of those who would blow themselves up in places where Jews gather, this is what you will get.
Al Jazeera reported the story on July 14 this year of a group of Palestinian teenagers asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. They did not hesitate: “Martyrs,” they said in unison.
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