Shurafa
Tourist and Travel Company continues to operate despite running at a loss due
to oppressive restrictions which have made travel a virtual impossibility for
the 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza City, Palestine-“Shurafa Tourist and Travel Company has been operating
in Gaza since 1952,” Nabil Shurafa, General Manager of the company, says
proudly; “it was founded by my father.” This historical background is
significant, as much for understanding the many and various forms of movement
restrictions with which Shurafa Travel has had to deal during Gaza’s
forty-three year occupation as for providing a rationale for how and why
Shurafa remains open under the current restrictions, which have made travel
outside of Gaza impossible for most of the 1.5 million inhabitants of the
coastal enclave. Indeed, Palestinians in Gaza have been tightly restricted from
traveling through the Israeli-controlled Erez crossing for almost two decades,
and the crossing has been completely and continuously closed to Palestinian
passengers since 14 June 2007. As a result, they have been forced to seek
travel via the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing, which was until last June
open only sporadically for brief periods and continues to be restricted to
those with serious medical conditions and those with foreign passports or
student visas abroad—and even travelers meeting these criteria are not
guaranteed to pass. Yet Nabil has carried on his father’s legacy in spite of
the circumstances, and his office is a tribute to a time when Palestinians were
not completely denied their fundamental right of movement and could travel via
Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport or even Gaza’s own Yasser Arafat Airport in Rafah:
photographs of foreign dignitaries arriving at the Gaza airport line his desk
and on his wall hangs an impressive award from Emirate Airways for outstanding
sales. Yet the look of exasperation apparent in Nabil’s face as he explains the
current state of his business is enough to indicate just how much times have
changed: the Arafat Airport has been for almost a decade little more than a
pile of rubble after repeated Israeli bombings which began in 2001, and the
movement of Palestinians has been suffocated by the closure for about as long.

Like all businesses in the Gaza Strip, Shurafa Travel has suffered
greatly as a result of the Israeli-imposed closure. “We are losing lots of
money,” Nabil says, clearly frustrated, “we are paying out of our own
pockets to keep the office open and, because of the siege, the costs to do so
are very high.” Because all his office material comes through the tunnels
from Egypt and because all his necessary utilities, such as his phone service,
are controlled by companies operating a monopoly in Gaza, Nabil estimates that
he operates one of the most expensive travel agencies in the world, relative to
the revenue that Shurafa Travel brings in. 

That Shurafa Tourist and Travel Company is still operating despite these
conditions is a testament to Nabil’s persistence and to the strong ties he and
his staff feel to the Gaza community, with whom the Shurafa staff have
developed a close bond over the past fifty-eight years of service. “We
can’t choose when or under what conditions the Rafah border crossing is open,
so we have to always remain open for our clients,” he explains. Such
consistency stands in stark contrast to the industry in which Shurafa Travel
operates, which even in the best circumstances is perpetually uncertain. The
recent “opening” of the Rafah border crossing is a case in point. Despite
commitments by the Egyptian authorities to facilitate travel for the thousands
of Palestinians desperately seeking egress either for urgent medical treatment,
to return to their school abroad, or in search of psychological relief from the
effects of the latest Israeli military offensive, travel in and out of Gaza via
the Rafah border crossing remains a highly complicated affair, and only a small
percentage of those attempting to cross are successful: while 10,531 travelers
have been allowed into Egypt since 31 May 2010—with 10,172 more crossing into
Gaza from Egypt, countless more have been turned back despite meeting the
ostensible criteria. “The conditions of travel are extremely
difficult,” Nabil says, “our clients never know whether they will
pass or not until after they are in Egypt.”

The uncertainty and constant fluctuations involved in crossing the
border at Rafah creates a difficult balancing act for Nabil and his clients.
Those seeking transit via Cairo to Europe and abroad, for instance, must be in
possession of a flight ticket in order to be permitted entry into Egypt; yet
Nabil’s clients are understandably hesitant to purchase tickets without knowing
when—and if—they will be allowed through the border. Nabil and his staff must
thus attempt to navigate between the rigidity of airline rules and the
uncertainty of the Rafah border, waiting until the last possible moment to
confirm the purchase of tickets for their clients: “We have no choice but to
operate in this way, but, because airline prices become more expensive as the
flight approaches, it becomes very expensive.” The Shurafa Travel staff spends
most of their time scheduling and rescheduling flights based on the situation
of their clients at the borders. They must remain constantly prepared to react
to unannounced developments at the border, sometimes having to arrange travel
at 3am.

The struggle facing Nabil and his clients is unique, yet rather than
empathy Nabil is often confronted with indifference when dealing with those
outside Gaza: “Most airline personnel I speak with don’t understand at all
the difficulties we and our clients face when attempting to travel from Gaza,
and they don’t care to listen.” Constant electricity cuts afflicting the
entire Gaza Strip further disrupt communication with airlines abroad, often in
Cairo, exacerbating the situation as Nabil attempts to coordinate flights at
the last moment.

Confronted with myriad difficulties, Nabil has witnessed his clientele
shrink and his earnings evaporate under the current siege. His business has
been crippled by the suffocating restrictions that affect all parts of
Palestinian life in the Gaza Strip, yet Nabil’s gravest concern is not
necessarily economic. Speaking on his changing client base, Nabil laments that
he has witnessed over the recent years a sharp increase in the number of
travelers who are leaving Gaza with no plans to return. “This is the most
significant effect of the siege, to turn people away from their homes with no
desire to return.”

While travel via the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing is
clearly difficult, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) emphasizes
that this option is the only recourse for Palestinians in Gaza due to the
complete closure applied by Israel. PCHR calls upon the international
community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva
Convention, to act decisively to ensure the immediate and complete lifting of
the illegal closure through opening unconditionally all border crossings of the
Gaza Strip and to ensure the freedom of movement of all Palestinians.