Palestinian traders forced to retreat from Cairo market
In the most crowded part of Egypt’s popular markets, in the center of Cairo, mainly clothing is sold at the "Gaza Market," but the Palestinian traders have made way for their Egyptian counterparts.
In the most crowded part of Egypt’s popular markets, in the center of Cairo, the popular “Gaza Market” specializes in selling all types of clothing. Its commercial activities started in the early 1940s, when Palestinian merchants would bring goods from the Gaza Strip to Egypt and make a handsome profit.
In 2014, the market moved from the area adjacent to el-Atba and al-Muski markets, in the Old City of Cairo, to the nearby neighborhood of al-Zawiyah al-Hamra along the commercial street of Port Said, as security measures were scarce and the market became crowded with random construction.
At the end of January, a new 65,000-square-foot market with solar panels opened nearby, with the same name, as it is an extension of the old market. However, as Palestinian products and traders are slowly disappearing from the market due to the constant closing of the Rafah crossing, relatively expensive Egyptian products have completely taken over this market.
Egyptian citizen Abd al-Karim Ali, 70, who started working as a porter in the Gaza Market in the mid-1970s, told Al-Monitor that the trade with Gaza witnessed a renaissance in the 1960s, 1970s and the early 1980s, when Palestinian merchants from the Gaza Strip transported goods such as clothing, olive oil and other Palestinian products to sell them in the market, and also transported goods from Egypt to Gaza.
