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Gazans divided over billboards featuring foreign donors

The Gaza Strip has grown accustomed to billboards thanking foreign donors for their support, but these billboards have done little to lift the siege on Gaza.
A Palestinian man rides his motorcycle past a billboard with pictures depicting UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan (R), Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed (C) and UAE Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan in Gaza City March 15, 2015. The billboard reads, "Thanks Emirates. Gaza is on a date for celebration. Mass wedding project." 
REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: SOCIETY POLITICS) - RTR4TED7
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A few years after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, a new phenomenon emerged. Every now and then, a roadside billboard would be erected, expressing gratitude to a country or figure for providing financial of political support to Hamas, or even funding for a project in the Gaza Strip.

This month, a new series of billboards appeared in Gaza, erected by a local nongovernmental organization, ​the Palestinian Center for Human Perseverance, which is run by Jalila Dahlan, wife of the dismissed Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan, who resides in the United Arab Emirates​ (UAE). The billboards feature photographs of Emirati princes and express thanks to them for paying for a wedding ceremony for 400 young men and women from Gaza, scheduled for April 4.

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