Sunday, December 16, 2007

Counting Heads in Gaza

About 200,000 Gazans rallied in support of Hamas
on Saturday, the 20th anniversary of its founding.


That was Steve Erlanger in the NYTimes.

And here is the Haaretz report:-

At least 300,000 Palestinians rallied in Gaza City on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary of Hamas's founding, as deposed Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh promised Hamas would not succumb to international pressure. The central square in Gaza City was awash with green flags and dozens of armed, masked men from the group's military wing patrolled. Some estimates put the crowd as high as 500,000.



I can't figure it out. Is Haaretz overrepresenting Hamas' power or trying to convince Israelis that there is no chance in hell (or Gaza) that Israel will ever obtain peace with a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority?

P.S.

Since there are 1.3 million Gazans (BBC) or 1,482,405 (July 2007 est.) million (CIA), that would mean that every third Gazan was at that demo. That's a better percentage than the Peace Now people came up with for their infamous "400,000" demo in 1982.

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