Testimonies

Ahmad al-Mu'ashar, bakery owner

I have worked in a bakery for twenty years. I worked with my father in a bakery in Jaffa and then my father opened a bakery in Rafah. I work with my nephews, and it is our sole source of livelihood.

Lots of consumers rely on us. Since the bombing of the Gaza power plant, on 28 June, we have been unable to work because we depend on electricity. We have eight machines: a machine to sift the flour, a 240-kilogram-capacity machine to prepare the dough, a cutting machine that cuts 8,000 pitas an hour, a machine for the first rise before cutting, a machine to roll the dough, a machine for the second rise after kneading, a fire oven, and a system for defrosting bread.

All the machines work on electricity as part of a single system, one feeding the other. They can't operate separately. Because of limited power supply, we tried working with a 60-kilowatt generator, which costs NIS 35 an hour to run. We did that for fourteen days. It cost us NIS 490 a day and ate up all our intake. But we have to supply people with bread. We are losing NIS 10,000 a month, and I can't pay my bills for insurance, taxes, and other obligations. I began avoiding the tax payments, like a thief. I have two vehicles to distribute bread to shops, but I don't have the money to pay the costs to run and insure them.

Baking bread in al-Mu'ashar bakery. Photo: Muhammad Sabah, B'Tselem, 19 Sept. 2006.

Electricity is the most important thing in operating a bakery. A power stoppage, even for a short time, can damage the dough and the bread. The machines work at very high temperatures, and a power stoppage causes a sharp drop in temperature and the machines break down. With the crossings [between the Gaza Strip and Israel ] closed, it is impossible to obtain replacement parts. The conveyor belt that removes the pitas from the oven, which costs NIS 9,000, was damaged, and I can't find a new one in the Strip. I ordered one, but it hasn't arrived yet because the crossings are closed. The problem with the conveyor belt causes problems with the oven, and sometimes the bread burns.

Occasionally, it is impossible to get diesel fuel, and there was a period of twenty days that we had to buy forty-eight liters of gas, which cost me a total of 5,000 dollars. Some generators work on gas, and gas is also needed to keep the oven going.

Because of the electricity shortage, we operate the bakery five hours less than before. Previously, we baked about 50,000 pitas a day, and now we bake only half that amount, and sometimes even less than that, about 15,000. I have eight workers, who support seventy people. They have worked for me for many years, but because of the decline in production and revenues, I don't have the money to pay their salaries. I may have to let them go.

The power stoppage also causes a water shortage, which makes it hard to keep the bakery clean. There is a chance that bacteria will get into the dough and make it unsuitable for consumption. I have had to buy water in tanks, for which I pay 50 shekels per 1,000 liters.

All these problems have made me think of selling the bakery. I invested 150,000 dollars in the machines and furnishings, but the way things are now, I can't support my family and the families of my brothers Nabil and Fathi, who are my partners. We are three families, comprising seventy-seven persons. I may have no choice but to sell the bakery at a loss.

Ahmad Jum'ah Suleiman al-Mu'ashar, 39, married with twelve children, is a bakery owner and a resident of the Brazil neighborhood, Rafah. His testimony was given to Muhammad Sabah on 19 Sept. 2006.