Why Gazans are dreaming of tourism

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/30/gaza-dreaming-tourism

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Tourism initiatives in the Gaza Strip might sound crazy to some people, but Gazans have been planning them all along.

When I visited in 2012, Dr Ahmed Muhaisen, head of the Islamic University of Gaza’s department of architecture, showed me his students’ models of luxurious Mediterranean seafront hotels, some with stilted bungalows more at home in Tahiti than the Holy Land. At the time, Muhaisen told me: “We have the beach, but we don’t have a way for the tourists to come. We dream at least. We can’t implement these projects but at least we support the creativity of the students.”

Maybe Muhaisen’s students don’t have to dream anymore, despite this summer’s war between Israel and Hamas. During this month’s Cairo summit, the Palestinian Authority received pledges of $5.4bn for Gaza reconstruction, $1.4bn more than requested, according to Newsweek. That money could move the students’ projects from drafting table to reality.

Most talk of Gaza’s economic development and its Mediterranean shoreline focuses on how far fishermen can head out to take in Neptune’s bounty. But the real long-term sustainable growth might be in revitalising the seafront’s formerly luxurious high-rise hotels, popular with Israelis and foreigners until the 2005 pullout.

While degraded, current hotel infrastructure remains for the most part intact. Ahmed Amer, director of public relations for the ministry of tourism and antiquities in Gaza, told me that though a few hotels were destroyed in the recent war, around 20 major ones remain operational. Many of these hosted journalists during the conflict, which might have been their saving grace.

Even when there is no fighting, with Gaza closed off these hotels are inaccessible to anyone without special access or who didn’t smuggle themselves in via tunnels from Egypt. Construction material for new hotels takes that same route, making development slow and expensive. That was the case with the al-Mathaf hotel, which opened in 2011, and where I stayed on my visit.

I checked in with its owner, Jawdat Khoudary, finding that the hotel – with a glass patio and private archeological museum – suffered virtually no damage. Khoudary hopes the new unity government uses its pledged funds wisely, saying: “That is the key to the reconstruction plan.” Like the architecture students, he too has a dream, telling me: “It is my right to dream that one day we will have an open city to the world and reconnect Gaza to the world.”

Gaza was once a major crossroads. Some hope it might be the same again, including the World Monuments Fund, which placed the monastery of Saint Hilarion ruins, a few miles from Gaza City, on its 2012 watch list. The WMF has worked with Muhaisen and others to stabilise and monitor the ruins, especially its stunning mosaic floors, which would be a highlight of any tourist’s trip. If only they could get there.

Beyond archeology there are other Gaza surprises, like surfers hanging ten, documented in the film God Went Surfing With the Devil, and an English language tourism website, designed by internet whiz Mohammed Alafranji. He told me he created it to solve Gaza’s “Google problem”, SEOing images of cafes and markets to make them clickably competitive with those of bombs.

Alafranji also launched a Gaza City tourism map, but after years of development followed by destruction, even his optimism is waning. “Everybody says something good for Gaza is coming,” he says, “but for myself, we still see a positive atmosphere all around us, but nothing on the ground.”

But with that extra $1.4bn, maybe something will be.

Yes, the rockets have to stop, and yes, some permanent peaceful political solution needs to be hashed out. But sustainable development must also occur to lift the Gaza Strip out of a cycle of poverty, unemployment and, quite simply, abject hopelessness. Ensuring that redeveloping the tourism sector is part of the plan can be the answer, reconnecting Gaza to Israel and other parts of the world once again.