After the latest war on Gaza, huge amounts of rubbles covered the costal enclave that made a huge problem for Gazans, but as usual they have a solution.

Abu Al Abed Al Ghefary is an owner of a glass factory in northern Gaza Strip where thousands of houses have been destroyed. He is one of these people who are trying to overcome the blockade and get an advantage of the rubble; he goes on buying or collecting the broken glass from war rubbles and recycle it for decoration.

"The long years that Gaza Strip lived under the siege created so much pain, sorrow and need but on the other hand, there is a bright side of this dilemma," Abu Al Abed said.

So, thanks to the closure which taught the Gazans how to live under any circumstances and accommodate with the hard situation.

Israel applied restrictions on Gaza when Hamas captured an Israeli soldier in June 2006. A year later, Israel closed all commercial crossings into the enclave after Hamas seized control of security installations in Gaza.

The Gaza Strip used to be a big market for the Israeli products and recycling wasn't an option to the Palestinian society since all the necessities and luxuries could be easily found. But today, recycling became something necessary and one of the main resources for many Gazans to get their needs.

Ahmed Hamad, a social researcher and lecturer in the Community College of Applied Science and Technology in Gaza, said "the recent situation forced the Gazans to change their consumer manners and to create new culture which can fits the different and difficult circumstances the people are living at the moment."

"During the last three years so many people used and created new ideas to live and acclimatize with the lack of most of the necessities that have disappeared, because of the siege and they are not seeing any hope in the near future for the siege to be over," he added. "This idea of not satisfying their needs in the old easy way dominate people's minds and makes them work hard to create new ideas to live the day, like using cooking oil instead of diesel when there is a lack of fuel and using pieces of radios to repair other house machines and so many other examples."

The war left huge destruction all over the place, many houses, factories, farms have been destroyed but the Gazan soul isn't, contrarily the willing of living and challenging is endless to these people.

Abu Al Abed said "I found it interesting to use broken glass instead of just throwing it away and to make something nice out of it. So I started to collect it from people and now I'm making samples of board frames and slabs.

The process of making these slabs isn't difficult but it needs some time; first the broken glass must be crushed and turned into soft and small crystals, then the workers add some paint on it. The crystals are added with sand and cement and put in ovens for a couple of hours and once it's finished the result will be a nice colored slab.

Abu Al Abed says that he was "hesitant in the beginning but after I made some samples people are starting to ask for more and now he is establishing a bigger product line for this product".

Although the manufacturing of this colored slab out of the broken glass might not be something big but it has at least one important meaning that the Palestinians won't be broken because they deserve to live a colored life.

(Xinhua News Agency January 26, 2010)