Soccer Dad

Hamas humanitarian crises

A few weeks ago Hamas engineered a blackout of Gaza, apparently for propaganda purposes. Now its latest stunt is to deny pilgrims from going on Hajj to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia sets quotas to different regions for the number of pilgrims they can send to Mecca each year. Gaza is allowed to dispatch about 3,000.

Abbas' Palestinian Authority and Gaza's Hamas rulers each submitted separate lists of Gaza pilgrims to the Saudi authorities for visa approvals, but so far Saudi Arabia has rejected the Hamas list.

Hamas officials were defiant on Sunday, saying nobody would leave until those who applied through the Gaza government are given visas by Saudi Arabia.

"The priority is for those who registered with us," said Hamas official Abdullah Abu Jarbou. "It is not for those who bypassed the legitimate government. They didn't go through the legal channels."

This is priceless. And remember that Egypt is at peace with Israel.

In a sign of a widening rift with regional Arab countries, Egypt's Foreign Ministry said the ban damaged "the reputation of (the) Islamic movement."

So firing rockets at civilians and Israel doesn't damage Hamas's reputation, but preventing pilgrims from travel does. And if it were Israel that was stopping the pilgrim, I imagine that Egypt's Foreign Ministry would have been a lot more emphatic.

Crossposted on Yourish.