Only Power Plant in Gaza Closed Because of Oil Shortage

Arab sources are reporting today that the only power plant in the Gaza Strip, which serves nearly 30% of the local Palestinian population, has been closed because of a lack of the necessary industrial fuel needed to run it. International sources have cited political infighting between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority as well as the continuing Israeli blockade as the cause of the fuel shortage. In both English and Arabic international sources, including BBC Arabic and AFP Arabic, as well as well as Yahoo News in English, multiple reasons for the fuel shortage were highlighted. In local Arabic sources, however, no mention was made of what caused the shortage itself, but only of the potentially devastating impact on the local population. Sources such as Saba Net (Yemeni), Al-Youm Al-Sab3a (Egyptian), and Al-Quds (Palestinian) made no reference to alleged refusal of Hamas to pick up part of the tab for the oil imports, the rest of which was paid by Ramallah to the Israelis. Since the end of European Commission aid to the Palestinian Authority to help purchase fuel in November, there have been fuel shortages which are now coinciding with the beginning warmer summer months and increased energy demands.

The closing of this plant highlights the myriad challenges of power politics in the region: a Palestinian government with neither the resources nor the cohesion needed to govern in the face of a devastating physical Israeli blockade as well as a political and mental separation barrier between its armed and provocative rival faction inside the Strip - combined with sporadic and stilted intervention by the major western powers who make promises they don't keep and threats they don't back up (settlements, etc). The failure of these powers to consistently deliver even the most basic of services is a constant reminder to the Palestinian people of their second class status in their own land and the unfortunate fact that theirs is a problem that no one wants to address and is therefore actively forgotten.

The international security implications of a closed power plant on the face seem minimal and even isolated. Sure, Gazans have been dealing with 8-12 hour blackouts, reduced water supply and insufficient waste services as well as diminished medical care for two years because of the ongoing energy crisis - and yes, there are multiple factions at fault for the daily human suffering in the Gaza strip - but the lack of coverage of ongoing hardships like this in the mainstream American media, particularly the Washington Post and New York Times, creates an uninformed readership who cannot knowledgeably participate in discussions led by top US officials, including Obama, Clinton, and George Mitchell. This leads to a tremendously skewed perception of both the seemingly more isolated incidents and the real and potential impacts of these incidents on the situation going forward. It also means that respective perceptions of the Arab and American public will operate on wholly different levels, complicating any effort by their respective leaders to implement the necessary diplomatic solutions because the political risk is too high. But does it violate journalistic standards for the media to have a certain degree of agency in reporting what they feel needs to be reported versus what the readership markets are demanding through their established consumption patterns?