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.

Ps my solar panels in a non sunny country aren't in any danger from rockets, not sure what you mean by that!

Cobblers. In the first place there was no "before the occupation" - it was just different people doing the occupying. Immediately before - oh yes, the British. During the 3 decades of the British Mandate there were continual protests, riots and and revolts. THere was no golden age of communities living together peacefully - that is British tripe that is not borne out by the historical record. We weren't even very "nice" occupiers -

I do not support Zionist policies, but nor do I support terrorists, and Hamas are terrorists. But the roots of this are neither Israel or Palestine - they lie much closer to home You could argue that both sides learned a lot from us, and it wasn't about peaceful co-existence. Britain left Palestine simmering on the brink of a war between the Arabs and Jews, and didn't look back, because it was too hot to handle.

Be clear - whatever else may or may not be possible in achieving a peace in the longer term, it will never happen whilst terrorists backed by Iran and Russia control the agenda, and they do just want to kill Jewish people (and actually anyone else, including Palestinians who get in their way). And if they ever succeeded with the Jews, they would move on to Christians and then Muslims who don't share their views. Hammas are not Muslims, they are terrorists, and there is no room in the Quran for their actions. As any decent Imman would tell you.

@CinnamonJellyBeans that is unnecessary, please read some of the thread

I thought it was fairly obvious....

EnoughIsay · Today 16:18

"When Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 they left lots of infrastructure including a water treatment plant etc. the first thing Hamas did when they got into power was blow it up.' This is up for debate.

Well, not really, as the Israelis blew it up in an airstrike.

Because Hamas is a terrorist group, all they are concerned about is arms. They have zero concern for the civilian population. Plus have you seen the size of Gaza and how densely populated it is??

I'm not sure if it's been said on this thread or not, but this isn't true. NGOs, whilst obviously not condoning the group, acknowledge the humanitarian work that they do. Delivering food, medicine, education etc. The 'arms' wing of Hamas is a very small part.

Op it's a valid question and I'm learning from the responses. This is a chat forum not a masters debate on isreal /Palestine conflict the "op what with all that space" answers make themselves look stupid

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-solar-energy-idUSKBN1KU164

They have and received substantial EU grants to do so

Ffs Hamas apologists on this thread. Have you seen what they're doing to children, babies?

This thread is about the infrastructure of a particular country and why it doesn't exist. There are plenty of other threads you can post your outrage on.

They're really REALLY poor too

What israel and the creation of israel to the palestinian people can only be described by this comparison:

Imagine every single muslim person in a western country ( western europe, usa, canada, australia, new zealand etc.) and they were allowed to take over the island of Great Britain and establish a secular state comprising solely of westernised muslims with a 10% radical percentage in the mix as well. Now the native people of GB are initially told that they can have the areas of cornwall and Scotland( including cumbria) to house their population. So that 70 million is now squeezed into a smaller area. In the next 30 years the new muslim population encroach to areas of scotland, cumbria and cornwall and claim that the border originally drawn up is incorrect and shrink the area of the native people. Now the native people were not consulted on this and they were treated like stupid people Who didn’t have a voice. 70 years later, the native british population are treated as refugees in their native land that they were born in. Due to attacks from the new state they cannot get the economy running, the population are wholly reliant on humanitarian aid.

does it horrify you? Because its what happened to the people of palestine. You cannot imagine being prisoner in your own land and as time goes by extremist factions arise as there is no justice or outlet for justice to what has happened.

now back to reality, right wingers and closet racists scream about a few thousand refugees arriving by boat as our current government and conservative politicians have likened people fleeing war, geonocide by economic devastation or persecution to cockroaches- lets not forget conservative
politicians likening situations to infestations.

@Dulra thank you, that is a very interesting article and i am learning a lot. I wonder if all the pps who were aggressively rude and belittling sarcastic about my even raising a question about the possibility of solar power in Palestine will come back to the discussion?

Of course any infrastructure is vulnerable in a potential zone. That is obvious to anyone. But I appear to be far from the sole person on earth stupid/divorced from reality enough to just raise the question and ask for thoughts.

And despite all the sarcasm, misinformation and personal insults (calling me stupid and goady, not appreciated in a genuine discussion) along the way, I have received a definitive answer to my original question, which was: why Palestinians are not using solar. The answer is: they are. Thanks. I genuinely did not know that.

For those who have not read the link above, which is a Reuters article from 2018, it reads (specifically in relation to Gaza):

"The number of panels in the enclave has increased four-fold in four years and they are now dotted on most rooftops and balcony on homes, schools, hospitals, shops, banks and mosques"

Maybe most aren't there any more after today, probably not, but they were there, contrary to what I and many others thought.

Care to comment @littleblackcat27 @BlueYonder57 or @CinnamonJellyBeans ?

Wrong. While the OP is clearly "naive in the extreme" about Palestine and Gaza, you are naive about solar panels. Do you know they don't work in excessive heat? And that they would have to have to be on a constant cleaning program in order to keep the panels clear of sand and dust? It's not a viable way to produce power there. There's a very good reason why they don't utilize solar in the Middle East and it's not because they are politically influenced.

Source: resident of 4 ME countries spanning over a decade.

But there was just an article linked upthread showing lots of solar panels are in Palestine, so how does that fit?

And looking around now I see that Israel too has solar farms...

Love to thank you, because you are being goady and therefore proving the point. They could have plastered the entire place with solar panels. Today they would still be without power because in rockets v. solar panels, rockets win. So they put in panels - it seems paid for by others - and where are they? In the rubble. The reason they now have no power is not the lack of sustainable sources. It is because Hamas attacked Israel and slaughtered civilians.

And no Israel isn't perfect either. But that's not the point. This isn't tennis, and you don't win with points. Nobody is winning here.

Palestine/Israel's Mediterranean climate is much less extreme than that of Gulf countries. It's not a desert in the way that UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, etc are.

I was responding to the poster criticizing OTHER countries in the ME for not using solar.

Yes, it's rubble now, I am sure. But it wasn't an unheard of idea, deserving of such supercilious put downs...

There is solar in other ME countries, from a quick Google...

Do you mean me? I specifically mentioned Jordan, which is right next to Israel/Palestine so presumably a similar climate.

And it looks like it's actually a big growth area there now, e.g. https://solarquarter.com/2023/08/28/jordan-to-launch-jd100-million-solar-panel-manufacturing-plant-near-queen-alia-international-airport/

@emilysquest it's ridiculous isn't it.

This is a chat forum, i welcome the many very clued up posters on different issues but the way some people sneer and expect us all to be experts on different subjects is ridiculous

The posters sneering are the stupid ones that don't realise you should read all OPs comments posts before commenting!

Why anyone goes on a thread with loads of comments and doesn't read all the OPs posts is beyond me. You see it time and time again!

Cancel the cheque! For the love of god. Filter all the OPs comments!