RAFAH: A harsh wind lashes at the tattooed wrinkled face of Selma Suleiman. Dates, olive oil and nuts lay in front of her as Gazans move across the Rafah border.
She is part of the temporary economy that springs up in the desert like rainstorm vegetation every time the border opens.
But the infrequency of the border openings has made life harder for this fragile economy.
“We are getting by, says Suleiman. “But last year was a lot better.
Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip for three days this week starting Sunday.
For the last several years, the border policy has been erratic, changing with the shifting political winds. The border was open more or less consistently between November 2005 and June 2006. Beginning in June, 2007, the border was effectively shut down with the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip.
This unpredictability has meant a great deal of economic instability for those depending on border traffic for income.
“On a good day I’ll make LE 10 but sometimes I don’t make anything, says Suleiman.
But Suleiman faces another problem. The lack of water has led to a poor harvest, which has increased the price of her goods.
“Last year this bottle of olive oil would go for LE 35, says Suleiman. “But because there isn’t any water we don’t have many olives, so it is LE 45.
With the increase in price, she says, people are less likely to buy from her.
Nearby, Mohamed Jamal Mohamed seems to have cornered the food market at the largely barren crossing zone. His kiosk, built under a mosque and a stone’s throw from the border terminal, serves as a watering hole for stranded travelers.
He serves up tea, coffee, packaged foods and a little conversation to anyone who stops by.
On Sunday, he said, when the border was clogged with travelers, he made around LE 200 profit.
Since the war in January between Israel and Hamas, the border crossing has been open for only about three days a month. Those three days represent something of a mad dash for cash for vendors whose livelihood depends on traffic here.
They’re “very important because of the children, said Mohamed, taking his young daughter by the arm. For the 27 days each month the border is closed, he says almost no business comes his way.
As with so many vendors at the border, Mohamed says he misses the day when the border was open full time. Then, he said, business boomed.
Changes in Egyptian border policy have also hurt him. Now, the security forces keep travelers some ways down the border road, only letting them approach the terminal when it’s time to cross. As a result, there are fewer people loitering around his shop.
Early Sunday morning, the first formal day of the border opening, a line of baton-wielding police kept throngs of Palestinians returning to Gaza several hundred yards from the border crossing.
Littered throughout the ranks of these impatient travelers were porters, who had appeared in order to make a few pounds helping the Palestinians maneuver the border area with, in some cases, their mountain of bags.
Some of the porters were Bedouin women, standing by a Palestinian family – and a donkey cart with the luggage. Young children also pitched in, offering their services to lug a couple of bags.
“If the border’s not open, we don’t do any work, said Islam Adel, one of the young porters, noting that he tries to do odd jobs around Rafah when the border is closed. The three days of cross-border travel, though, are his biggest paydays of the month, he said.
On a good day working with the luggage, Adel makes up to LE 100. But the Egyptian security forces have, more and more, taken to ferrying Palestinians on buses for the last stretch of the trip. Because of the buses, Adel says he can make as little as LE 20 in a day.
For LE 100 per day, he said, he can buy permission to work inside the terminal itself. By doing that, he said, he can earn up to LE 300 in a day. It’s not something he’s saved the money to do yet.
The border will again close at the end of the day today, and neither side has announced when it might open again. And for those who work here, the long wait will begin again.
