Origin: UK Palestine | Documentary | Director: Laila El-Haddad and Saeed Taji Farouky | 22 minutes

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Tunnel trade

Laila ElHaddad - Saeed Taji 2007 docu 22 min.

When Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982, they built a wall
along Gaza's southern border with Egypt. The city of Rafah was split in
half. Over subsequent years, frequent border closures further isolated the
Gaza Strip, and Palestinian trade was forced underground. Since June 2007,
virtually nothing crosses the perimeter of what has been called the world's
largest prison. There remains, however, a dangerous means of trade between
Gaza and the outside world - a network of tunnels used to smuggle
everything from weapons to food to heart medicine. Tunnel Trade is an
exclusive inside look at this underground economy from the perspective of
the people who run it. Filmed in May 2007 for AlJazeera International's
People & Power programme, it explores how a handful of individuals from
Rafah have gone underground to achieve what politics otherwise makes
impossible.