Hamas shopping cart full as Israel empties Al Aqsa

In a speech last week given at Al Azhar, Ismail Haniya rallied worshipers during the Friday congregational prayers in light of  the plight of Palestinian, Muslim worshipers in Jerusalem, who were being violently put down by Israeli forces. While the screen split between the reality of Al Aqsa under the Judiazation of Jerusalem and Haniya's speech, one side of the screen shows suffering while the other shows lobbying done for an interest outside of Jerusalem. Haniya was loading his shopping cart with Egyptian cries of support, televised into propaganda,  after cutting ties with Bashar al Assad. Leading the chanting and later being seen paraded in the street, Haniya decried Iran, Hezbollah, and Bashar al Assad in Egypt's capital and heart of its own uprisings. 

Reza Aslan, propose a solution to NGOization of Palestine

Al Arabiya news came out with this interesting article listing why Hamas in the Gaza Strip is regulating NGOs closely unlike the West Bank where NGOs seem to be thriving without any exit plan. This comes following Hamas' obstruction of an Amideast student from Gaza to fulfill a scholarship opportunity in the US.

The media is really milking the obstruction of NGO intervention in the Gaza Strip, which is highly touchy for even me to attempt to define for the outside reader. But perhaps my personal experience in grant writing, NGOs, and foreign relations can shed some light as to why Gaza is not easily willing to allow NGOs into the small, narrow, bombarded strip. For the outsider trying to bring aid to Palestine, like Reza Aslan, Hamas seems to be exactly what the media portrays it as: arrogant, stubborn, and not doing enough for the sake of its people.