Gaza's Electricity Bills

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

An uproar erupts every so often over the payment of Gaza’s electricity bills, leading to power cuts for our people in the Gaza Strip. Of course, the matter is more political than financial, and in the end it is the Palestinian people in Gaza who pay the price.

I, Abdul-Sattar Kassem, am prepared to raise the funds needed to cover the cost of supplying electricity to Gaza from wealthy Arabs and Palestinians, and to have them transferred directly to the Palestinian Authority’s account number in Ramallah. I am prepared to undertake this task for the sake of all our people in the Gaza Strip, and all of us know perfectly well that a large segment of people there cannot afford to pay their household bills.

This is work meant to help the general public, not to help the government in Gaza, or any particular Palestinian faction.

What is needed is for the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to give me its account number designated for this purpose, and I will be able to raise the necessary funds within the specified period and transfer them. And if it wants the money in cash, there is no objection, provided the occupation does not confiscate it at the bridge.

What is also needed, from Palestinians, is that the pain and grief of the Palestinian people not be used to achieve political ends and goals that have nothing to do with liberating the homeland and restoring its rights.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “فواتير كهرباء غزة” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.