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Luxury Shopping Mall Opens in Gaza City

Updated: Monday, 19 Jul 2010, 11:04 AM EDT
Published : Monday, 19 Jul 2010, 10:38 AM EDT

MYFOXNY.COM - While most of the news coming out of Gaza is reported on war-torn residents under siege from Israel, one journalist is trying to paint a different picture of the situation inside Palestinian land. While there is widespread poverty in the Gaza Strip, he says a large upper class is enjoying Western-style living.

Political and media commentator Tom Gross reports that while Hamas continues to complain that Gaza lacks building materials, a" "luxury" mall has opened in Gaza City.

It is the first indoor mall to open in Gaza in four years. It reportedly boasts air conditioning, a parking lot, security guards, a full-service supermarket and a food court.
Goods from Israel, France, and the United States are available in the stores.

On Sunday, European Union foreign policy director Catherine Ashton launched the Private Sector Reconstruction in Gaza program. The European Union has already invested $6 million to Gaza businesses.

Gross said, “On a day when (because EU Foreign Policy Chief Baroness Ashton is in Gaza) the BBC and other media have featured extensive reports all day long on what they term the dire economic situation in Gaza, why are they not mentioning the new shopping mall that opened there yesterday?"

Pro-Hamas website Paltimes reported that mall managers view the mall’s opening as a victory over an Israeli blockade. Israel has kept its border crossings to Gaza closed.

Gross has previously posted photos of restaurants, busy shops and a new government-built swimming pool on his blog during the "Israeli siege".

Gross said, “When leading news outlets mention the so-called humanitarian flotillas from Turkey, why do they omit the fact that life expectancy and literacy rates are higher, and infant mortality rates are lower in Gaza than corresponding rates in Turkey? Have they considered that perhaps the humanitarian flotillas ought to be going in the other direction, towards Turkey?”