Despite being the only boat builder in the Gaza Strip Abdullah Alnajjar 58 has no economic privilege whatsoever as he stays jobless most of the time.
Alnajjar gets to Rafah’s seaport in the early morning hours hoping that he would be able to make a living by having some customers who want to fix their boats or build new ones in the best scenario.
The Israeli navy forces prevent Palestinian fishermen from reaching the 20-mile-depth who they are entitled to access according to the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Israeli authorities have gradually reduced the fishing zone for fishermen. Following the 2014 Gaza war the ceasefire agreement stated that fishermen could sail at 12 nautical miles yet the Israeli authorities didn’t live up to its promise and only allowed fishermen to fish at six nautical miles in which fishermen are still shot at arrested and harassed.
Boats on the sand
In front of fishermen’s rooms at Rafah’s seaport Alnajjar chats with his friends and fishermen Rashad Faraht 63 and Said Abuouda 43 about the beginning of the fishing season at a time the Israeli navy still prevents fishermen from sailing at more than six nautical miles.
Alnajjar told the PIC reporter as he touched the latest boat he built “I have been working as a boat builder since I was 14. I am the only one in the Gaza Strip doing this job as my father and uncle taught me this craft. Now my son started learning this craft too but the siege and the poverty of fishermen made me stop working.”
Alnajjar uses Quina and Swedish wooden boards in addition to fiber-glass materials to build boats with various capacities with a maximum length of 20 meters and a maximum width of five meters.
He adds “I use a hand plane a saw and a grinding machine. I first cut Quina wooden boards and build the structure of the boat. Then I cover the structure using strips of woods using fiber glass which was banned by the Israeli occupation authorities since the siege was first imposed on Gaza in 2006 a material that we could hardly get now. And because my work is manual it takes me a month to 45 days to build a big boat.”
Expensive cost
The degree of precision in boats building has to do with boats structure building Quina wood which could be found easily in the 1948 Occupied Territories yet today Alnajjar finds himself forced to completely depend on Gaza’s rare wood.
Alnajjar stresses that a big boat ready for sail might cost 130000 USD including equipping it with a generator an electrical network and a fishing net.
He adds: “An electrical generator costs 18000 USD lights cost 10000 USD and I need 80 boxes of fiber glass each one at around 8000 NIS (2190 USD) 10 pieces of fabric with a total cost of 3000 NIS (821 USD) for each to build a boat. Let alone the price of the wood which costs more than 4000 NIS (1095 USD).”
He noted that the difficulty of boats building these days lies in obtaining wood. The Gaza Strip has lost hundreds of Quina trees which were planted along the Salah Al-Din Highway following paving the road which damaged Alnajjar’s career.
Alnajjar tries to avoid the heat of the pre-noon sun by shadowing under his latest boat which is placed on the beach. He notes “I find little work these days. I have made hundreds of boats in my life and I have fixed hundreds of them as well. I usually do maintenance for the strips of woods as they should be replaced every 30 years.”
The only boat builder in the Gaza Strip wishes to travel to the neighboring countries to practice his career and to make his living out of a career he says is about to disappear in the Gaza Strip.
