The EconomistAugust 4th 2018 Middle East and Africa 392
The Palestinians
From bankrupt to banged up
Z
IAD AL-ZAYYAN traded his home for
his freedom. For years he ran a profit-
able business importing ceramic tiles to
Gaza. In 2016 he took out a loan to pay for
an order worth 80000 shekels ($20830).
But in a besieged territory with 43%
unemployment fewer and fewer people
canafford to fix up their homes. Mr Zay-
yan could not find any customers for his
last order. Desperate to pay off his credi-
tors he sold his flat in Nuseirat a refugee
camp south of Gaza City. He got $17000
for it 23% less than what he paid three
years earlier. âAll of that money went to
cover the loanâ he says.
His alternative was jail. Most coun-
tries have abolished debtorsâ prisons.
Palestine should have too. It signed aUN
treaty that forbids them. Butthey still
exist in Gaza which has been ruled since
2007 by Hamas a militant Islamist group.
Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on
the territory after it took power. Last year
the Palestinian Authority (PA) which
governs the West Bank added its own
sanctions to press Hamas into ceding
control. ThePAhas cut public-sector pay
in Gaza by over 40% and forced thou-
sands of civil servants into retirement.
The economy stagnant for a decade
has gone into freefall. Last year Gazans
bounced cheques worth more than
400m shekels an 80% increase over 2016.
More than 42000 people were arrested
for falling behind ontheir debts. Issa
Habash a grocer in Nuseirat estimates
that two-thirds of his customers owe him
money. Hoping to cut back on the prac-
tice he no longer sells full-sized contain-ers of many staples. Instead he offers tiny
bottles of vegetable oil and sachets of
coffee. âThey cost only one shekel and
people still put them in the bookâ Mr
Habash says gesturing to his ledger.
Raed al-Shawa supplies gas to 1500
customers in northern Gaza. His resi-
dential clients have always struggled to
pay. Last year though even factories and
restaurants started bouncing cheques. He
stopped accepting them and now de-
mands cash up front. âWe lost 40% of our
usual salesâ he says. That means he
cannot always pay his 22 employees on
time. He worries they will fall behind on
their own debts deepening the cycle.
The unluckiest find themselves in
front of Muhammad Nofal one of two
financial judges in Gaza City. His court
handles up to 40 cases each day. Not all
of the guilty go to jail; some work out
deferments or payment plans. In March
the public prosecutor offered a one-
month amnesty for debtors to settle up.
Still Mr Nofal has sent hundreds to jail
over the past year for terms ranging from
months to years depending on the debt.
Mr Zayyan wants to wind down his
business but no one wants to buy his
inventory or his commercial property. He
spends his days idling in cafés occasion-
ally selling small batches of his remain-
ing tiles. No longer a homeowner he
pays 1000 shekels a month for a rented
apartment. His savings are running out
and he fears he will soon fall behind on
the rent. âIâm reaching the breaking
pointâ he says. âI canât continue. But I
canât leave either.âNUSEIRAT
Other countries abolished debtorsâ prisons long ago. In Gaza they are fullIn the red? Free bedschool of Islam as Saudi Arabia let one be
built a decade ago. Bahrain did so in 1906.
This year it broke ground on Our Lady of
Arabia a new cathedral.
Saudi exceptionalism matters because
the kingdom is home to Islamâs holiest
sites and is the prime propagator of the
faith. In October Prince Muhammad said
he wanted Saudi Arabia to be âopen to all
religions traditions and people around the
globeâ. But off the Saudi coast in Bahrain
Camillo Ballin the Catholic bishop of
Northern Arabia complains that nothing
has changed for Saudi Arabiaâs Christians.
Private prayer is tolerated but the public
display of Christian symbols is not. Com-
munion in a country that bans wine is pro-
blematic. Priests sneak in as cooks or me-
chanics to tend to their flocks.
The bishopâs website likens clandestine
prayer meetings to the tribulations of early
Christians under the Roman empire. In the
wing of a foreign embassy in the Saudi
capital Riyadh next to the bar a table cov-
ered in black cloth serves as the altar. A
priest raises a bible and pronounces the
sacrament. A packed multinational con-
gregation sings the Gloria. âFor your suffer-
ings you will be savedâ incants the priest.
Some Saudi theologians call for a re-
think. They insist that the Prophetâs prohi-
bition against two dinshas been mistrans-
lated (dinmeans religious authority not
religion) and claim he never intended the
ban on non-Muslim worship to cover the
entire peninsula. His Declaration of Medi-
na a treaty providing for coexistence with
Jews âcould yet be our modelâ says an of-
ficial at the Islamic affairs ministry.
Abdullah the previous Saudi king
opened an interfaith centre but located it
in far-off Vienna. More courageously
Prince Muhammad has hosted Christian
clergymen at home. Saudi media have run
footage of the Maronite patriarch and a pa-
pal emissary Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran
dressed in full religious regalia crucifixes
included meeting the king. A decree strip-
ping the religious police of their powers to
arrest gives sanctuary to Christians who
stage large prayer meetings at home. Bigot-
ed preachers have been removed from the
airwaves and injunctions to fight the unbe-
lievers deleted from primary-school text-
books. The opening of a papal legation and
construction of a church predicts a royal
adviser are only a matter of time. One po-
tential venue is Neom a planned city in
the far north-west which could be de-
clared outside the Arabian peninsula.
Much hangs on the whim of Prince Mu-
hammad. His jailing of critics has curbed
dissent. The chief mufti who called for an
end to church-building on the peninsula
after Kuwait built one in 2012 judiciously
holds his tongue. But suppression could
provoke a backlash. âToleration is more
palatable when applied tolerantlyâ says a
nervous Saudi author. 7