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For Gazans, Egypt is it

Many come back from a trip across border talking like Egyptians and about prices there.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A little travel has gone a long way toward changing perceptions in Gaza.

After excursions to Egypt across a border breached by Hamas militants, some Palestinians pepper their local Arabic dialect with Egyptian expressions while others say they are shocked by the poverty there.

Jihad Jaradeh, 24, a Gazan whose family owns a furniture shop, reached the Egyptian town of El Arish, some 25 miles from the border. Although shop owners doubled and tripled prices, Jaradeh paid up, saying he even gave extra "because they looked so poor."

Jaradeh is not typical; two-thirds of Gazans live on less than $2 a day. But many travelers remarked on the discrepancy between their more glamorous image of urban Egypt - derived mostly from movies - and the run-down border region of unpaved streets and small houses they encountered.

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A trip to Egypt has become a status symbol, and many Gazans have picked up Egyptian slang.

"When people speak Egyptian (Arabic), they want to give an impression that they are now cultured. It also gives an impression that they've traveled to Egypt and met with Egyptians," said linguist Asad Abu Shark of Azhar University in Gaza City,

Five days in Egypt was enough for Gazan Taysir Muammar, 37, who loudly joked with friends in a broken Egyptian dialect, replacing the Palestinian "j" (as in jug) with a hard Egyptian "g" (as in got).

Gazans have picked up new phrases across the border, like the filler word bitaa, loosely translated as "stuff," and the Egyptian greeting ezayak instead of kifhalak to ask "How are you doing?"

The border breach has given Gazans a lot to talk about, said Naji Shurrab, a political scientist at Azhar University. "In closed rooms and alley ways, people aren't talking about Hamas and Fatah anymore," he said, referring to the bitter political rivalries. "They are talking about prices (of goods in Egypt)."

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The speed with which Gazans bought up Egyptian goods prompted comments here that Gaza's 1.5-million residents are well on their way to colonizing Egypt, even though it has 77-million people.

One Palestinian cartoon passed around by e-mail shows a Gazan throwing a rope over the Sphinx, trying to drag it into Gaza.

Others jest that Egyptians will storm Gaza if the breach is sealed because the Palestinians have picked them clean.

Hamas vows border won't close

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Hamas militants on Friday hauled away metal spikes that Egyptian soldiers had placed at sections of the Gaza-Egypt border, defying attempts to reseal the frontier and stop the influx of blockade-weary Gazans.

Ever since Hamas-allied militants toppled the border wall Jan. 23 with a series of explosions, Hamas militants have stopped several attempts by Egypt to reseal the frontier.

The Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said Friday he would not allow the border to be resealed.

On Friday, about 600 Hamas supporters rallied about 100 yards from the nearest Egyptian border post. One banner read: "Egypt and Palestine are one people, not two." A protester shouted, "Keep the border open."

Some protesters jumped over metal barriers into Egypt, raising Hamas flags there. Dozens of Egyptian border guards watched, but did not intervene.

[Last modified February 2, 2008, 01:25:28]