To not understand why the Palestinians did not put up solar panel farms

[emilysquest]

This may be naive in the extreme, but I was reading the reports this morning that Gaza will run out of power today, which is horrific. I dread to think what is going to happen now to those poor people.

This caused me to think: We happen to be in the process of making ourselves completely self-sufficient (off-grid) using solar panels (and some wind), and this is in Ireland, so not a sunny place like Palestine.

My question is, given the Gaza Strip was always dependent on power from Israel, which they regard (rightly) as a hostile country, why have they not in all the years sought to become self-sufficient (or at least more self-sufficient) with regard to power, to prevent the kind of blockade they are experiencing now?

Actually an allied question for those who know would be: travelling in eastern Europe recently, especially Bulgaria, there are huge solar farms everywhere. I have not been to the Middle East (well not since I was a baby), but do they use solar at all? It would seem to be an obvious choice given the climate.

They didn’t use their own money to buy the weapons, the weapons and possibly intelligence are provided by Iran (same as us providing weapons to Ukraine for a cause we consider fair).

Besides, it is a proven fact that the more a country spends on military and defence technology, the higher the levels of welfare for their people the richer the country will get. You may find it interesting to know all that technology you see in hospitals, your telephone or even the Internet were initially developed for military and defence purposes.

If you see the richest countries of the world, they al spend a much bigger portion of their resources developing weaponry. In fact, the biggest war deterrent is to have powerful weapons on both sides. Why do you think we are not attacking Russia? Because what they can fire at us is as heavy as what we can fire at them.

@Rosebud21 thank you very much for that. I thought my question, albeit obviously somwhat naive (which I knew) did not warrant the pile-on I got and deserved at least some thought-out answers and ones that did not involve telling me essentially to check my privilege.

It's such an ignorant idea that the World Bank has thought about it? (There are all the reasons why it would not work, but someone other than me in my muddy Irish field has actually thought about the concept, good to know...)

Interesting that two people above have answered the OP’s question while referencing actual solar panels that have been built there, and the problems associated with them — ie directly addressing her query. But still all our lofty Middle East experts are schooling her about how naive and ignorant she is…

My underlying point is of course that Hamas is not a government's arse and any Palestinian who supports them is being completely misled.

Why can’t Gaza, a densely populated hell hole without enough money to feed its citizens, install vast solar panel farms? Emily from Ireland did. 😂🙈😂🙈😂

This is a much better answer than the one I gave.

As is @birgittestyle answer. I've learned something today. Thank you.

If Gaza would spend its resources on solar panels or other useful infrastructure instead of rockets, guns and tunnels, Israel would have no reason to bomb them. So double benefit!

(or are you suggesting Israel is bombing Gaza because they like killing innocent people?)

The OP said that she thought it might be naive. She is only asking a question. That is how people learn.

I knew the answer like you, but she didn't.

For the same reason our own government didn’t manage to ensure any kind of reasonable education, healthcare and standard of living for the electorate. It is not government’s priority.

It is the most densely populated area on land in the world - think of it as a landlocked city. They don't have the space to produce enough food, let alone for solar power. Plus most of the population rely on charitable handouts and aid to survive, and there are few job prospects, so little money to make such a large upfront investment either. Hope that helps. 🙃

Look at @Rosebud21 links

The op is as far off as some are laughing about

The point is that despite the propaganda they’re bullshit. The lifetime carbon saving is not offset. IE in terms of manufacture and transport etc, they have more of a carbon impact than they save.

This is concealed behind lies, damn lies and statistics and will only really become obvious when all this crap ends up landfill and the people who bought them never see an ROI.

Thats some way off.

I think you are confusing Gaza with Gloucester

Solar panels don't just drop from the sky lol. It's complex manufacturing. Expensive product.

Good grief @emilysquest REALLY?! I have no words to describe this thread!

Do you know, OP: when you’re sitting there looking at a long running geopolitical problem and think you’ve, just off the top of your head, figured out and easy and obvious solution to it… it means that you really, really haven’t grasped the problem at all.

If it were easy at all, the absolute mess of a situation wouldn’t have been going on for decades.

Sometimes that ‘why can’t they…?’ question can be a useful way in to trying to understand a large systemic problem. But you need to start from the recognition that you have too limited understanding - not from confidence that your just thought of this now solution really should be the answer.

I've learnt something from this thread too! Thanks for starting it, OP, and ignore posters who just want to put you down.

@birgittestyle Thanks for that too!

@Palmasailor I am not here talking about the savings (although my solar and wind power is saving me a lot right now, I appreciate there could be other long-term problems). That is a first world way of looking at it, really, I was talking about a country under siege trying to make itself self-sufficient in some resources. The concept is worth discussing, even if the practicalities in the end make it impossible (...or do they?).

I may be naive and have never been to Gaza, but I am not ignorant or stupid.

Surely Iran is just using Hamas to do their dirty work.
It’s in Iran’s interest for Palestinian civilians to have electricity and water cut off because the more Palestinians suffer the more they can garner sympathy for their ‘cause.’

@emilysquest there’s never a wrong question op. I admire people who are prepared to ask out loud what other just think about.

@IncomingTraffic I did not say I have the solution. I was pondering why this did not/could not happen, and asking people for views, very different.

If people don’t ‘have enough understanding’ but are discouraged to ask questions- how are they supposed to learn?

Not everyone has the ability to go and read academic books on a topic, or journals or political thesis etc (I’m not meaning you @emilysquest, you might have 3 phds for all I know!)-

it’s a Good Thing for people to ask questions and try and educate themselves, that’s how society improves. People should not engage in knowledge gate keeping by essentially laughing at people who don’t know as much.

It’s how you ask the question though.

Positing a solution and saying that it seems obvious (and will also
solve climate change, as a bonus) doesn’t feel like genuine curiosity.

Especially in relation to a topic that is clearly extremely divisive.