On air at 1100GMT: What's it like to be unemployed in Gaza?

I noticed that you state that israel has a blockade of gaza, but you don't state why they have one. Perhaps if Hamas and Gazans weren't so adamant on trying to kill israelis there wouldn't be a blockade? Notice there isn't one in the west bank? Did you notice that in the west bank they aren't launching rockets at Israel? Gee, maybe that's just a giant coincidence.

I'm sure Egypt easing border controls into Gaza will improve the situation. However, unemployment, especially among youths is very common in the Middle East and would still be dramatic in Gaza even if there was no blockade at all. It is the direct result of a high birthrate during the past decades and general apathy resulting from an unchecked subsidies system combined with corruption, stringent social conservatisme and bad education (half the population has a degree in something but those degrees are worthless compared to Western or East Asian counterparts).

".....since the first half of 2006. That's when sanctions were imposed by Israel after Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, won a Palestinian legislative election."

That's not correct!!!!

Israel imposed sanctions on the Gaza Strip in the autumn of 2007.

By that time Hamas had seized the Gaza Strip in a bloody,brutal coup,turned it into a one-party mini-terrorist-state and proceeded to wage aggressive war against Southern Israel.That's what caused the sanctions.

Hamas won the PA elections of 2006,but,to this day,it has never been elected as the government of Gaza.New PA elections are long overdue and Hamas has never been anything but an unelected,one party regime in the Gaza Strip.

I thought that he BBC is required to present accurately and impartially.No sign of that here.

In some ways, the slanted and somewhat distorted reporting of the facts in almost every facet of Israeli life, reminds me of the 1970's reporting of Israel in Londons' Evening Standard, wherein they would refer to the late Menachim Begin and the execution of the three sergeants (who were in fact, members of military intellegence-aka spies). Israel did not "raid" "aid ships" with "supplies". Israel soldiers carried out an attempt to stop, without the use of violence, a convoy attempting to break a legally raised sea blockade, which well have been carrying WMD, or other weapons as has been recognised by the stopping and seizing of several other "peace ships" being laden with heavy weapons, purchaced with, presumably, European aid. A little more editorial balance, might well lead to an increase in rational accord between the parties.

Well,isn't this interesting.

Two comments in a row pointing out the errors in the BBC's reporting on the Gaza situation.

The BBC seems to have become a willing dupe of the Israel haters and by doing so is giving encouragement to terrorists,oh,sorry,I meant militants.

Being unemployed is terrible and degrading in Gaza or anywhere else. The reason and the blame falls squarely on the leadership and the politics of Hamas and no where else. Those in Gaza work for Hamas are fully employed by the leadership who probably get the funds from Iran so as to continually fire rockets and stage acts of terrorism against Israel. As for the rest of the population they find themselves unemployed and have to make do as best as they can.

And another comment.

So many people cry crocodile tears over unemployment in the Gaza Strip that they unfairly blame on Israel and the measures that it's forced to take to protect its population from indiscriminate aggression sponsored by the Hamas regime.What they never admit is that the Gaza Strip is an over-populated,economically hopeless case that can only be sustained by foreign hand-outs.

Gaza's best times were when Gazans could take up paid employment in Israel,which many of them did.But....the terrorists,Hamas,Islamic Jihad,etc,with their shootings,kidnappings and suicide bombings made that too risky for Israel and that was the end of that.

But,what I find so disgusting,are the double standards.Israel has been subjected to boycott after boycott sponsored by the evil Arab supremacist League and its Israel-hating camp-followers.Who cared about the unemployment that caused in Israel?

And how many protests do we hear from Britain about union sponsored boycotts of Israeli academics and universities?And how many protests do we hear from Britain about the ACTUAL boycotts of Israel-made goods organised by Israel-hating district councils in Scotland,notably by West Dunbartonshire Council,euphemistically excused as 'anti-Zionist'?That's the sort of thing that we haven't seen in Western Europe since the 1930s and 40s.I don't see much hand-wringing about the unemployment that could cause in Israel.

These are things that happen in Britain,right now.