[ti:Gazans Turn Old Cars and Metal into Profit]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]A new Israeli policy permits people in The Gaza Strip
[00:04.92]to sell old metal and send it to Israel for processing.
[00:10.76]Gaza is a Palestinian area bordering Israel and Egypt.
[00:16.72]The territory has an estimated 49 percent unemployment rate.
[00:23.04]Many old cars from Israel were sent
[00:26.88]to the northern part of Gaza many years ago.
[00:31.00]These cars stayed at junkyards,
[00:34.40]places where old things that are no longer used are stored.
[00:40.76]Gaza does not have the factories needed
[00:44.24]to melt down and process the metal waste.
[00:49.60]Palestinian merchants estimate that 200,000 tons of metal waste
[00:56.08]has built up near Gaza’s border
[00:58.76]since an Israeli-led blockade of the territory started in 2007.
[01:05.32]Last October, however, Israeli officials
[01:10.28]cleared the waste metal for export
[01:13.16]to a crushing factory inside Israel.
[01:17.44]The move has brought revenue and jobs to the poor area.
[01:23.68]People in Gaza sell the waste metal for around $228 for one ton.
[01:31.80]Israel permits 1,000 tons to be exported per week.
[01:38.52]It is estimated that in four years,
[01:42.24]all the extra metal that remains will have been sold and recycled.
[01:48.68]The merchants say the exports have created work
[01:52.84]for about 6,000 Palestinian workers in Gaza.
[01:58.12]Gazans have earned about $3 million
[02:02.24]since the project started, Israel said.
[02:06.00]Emad Aqail is a 39-year-old metal worker from Gaza.
[02:11.24]He feeds metal into pressing machines,
[02:14.92]so it is ready for export.
[02:17.88]“There is almost no work in town…
[02:20.36]Working in metals is exhausting,
[02:23.44]but it gives me the income I want.”
[02:28.04]Many Gazans would like to crush and recycle the metal for use
[02:33.12]inside their territory.
[02:35.56]However, Israel and Egypt restrict machines from going into the Gaza Strip.
[02:43.32]The two countries consider the militant, Islamist group Hamas,
[02:48.48]which rules Gaza, a security threat.
[02:51.56]No equipment, such as new metal pressing machines,
[02:56.04]can be sent to Gaza because it can also be used to manufacture weapons.
[03:02.84]Lieutenant Colonel Abdallah Halabi
[03:07.28]is with Israel’s Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza.
[03:12.96]He said Israel aims “to improve the Gaza Strip’s economy,
[03:18.68]because the quality of life and economic development in the Gaza Strip
[03:23.68]can’t be separated from the stability of the region’s security.”
[03:29.04]Bahaa Al-Agha is the director of Gaza’s Environment Quality Authority.
[03:37.00]He welcomes the program because it clears out dangerous materials
[03:42.12]polluting Gaza’s soil and water.
[03:46.32]But the good economic results would have been greater, he said,
[03:51.04]“if Israel allowed the establishment of factories
[03:55.36]to recycle these materials in the Gaza Strip.”
[03:59.76]I’m Armen Kassabian. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM