The firm wants to limit to just 10 people the number of demonstrators protesting at Heathrow airport against the sacking of 650 workers. It also wants an injunction to prevent what it describes as "assaulting, threatening, intimidating, molesting or otherwise abusing employees". Former employees of Gate Gourmet have turned out in their hundreds. Their dismissal led to a sympathy strike by staff at British Airways, causing chaos for thousands of passengers after 700 flights were cancelled, and costing the airline £30m.The injunction, against the Transport and General Workers' Union as well as 37 named individuals and "persons unknown" involved in the dispute, is being fought by the union.Speaking before the hearing yesterday, T&G national secretary, Brendan Gold, described the allegations of intimidation as "completely ridiculous".He said: "I know that there have been no complaints by the police about the conduct of our members. Union officials last night accused the embattled airline catering firm Gate Gourmet of trying to "deprive people of their right to picket" after the company sought a High Court injunction, claiming its staff were being intimidated and bullied. Three: the checkpoints will be gone and we can travel through Gaza easily, which will be better for my work.". Munir Dweik, 43, who worked in Tel Aviv before becoming a taxi driver here, was prudent in his aspirations "One: there are 1.3 million of us and we need more space Two: hopefully now there will be calm. The seizure last week of a French-Algerian journalist is worrying because, unusually, there is no word of him or his captors.All of which means those Gazans with a sober view of the future may have it right.
The coast could once again become a magnet for West Bank Palestinians and Israeli Arabs - provided they could get here.Mr Abdel Shafi points out that big investors will remain wary as long as doubts remain about Gaza's economic strength and security. And while Israel wants to halt the daily passage of around 4,500 Palestinians with jobs in Israel from 2008, James Wolfensohn, the former head of the World Bank, is trying to persuade Israel to extend the period - and increase the numbers to around 15,000."Safe passage" to and from the West Bank could be crucial to another use of Gaza's assets. But Mr Abdel Shafi says that to overcome Hamas's new campaigning message ("Four years of resistance defeated 10 years of negotiation"), Mr Abbas will need both a post-disengagement return to a peace process and the clearance of still substantial deadlocks in the current talks with Israel over vital outside access for goods and people.The main obstacles remain a dispute over Israel's determination to maintain a presence at the point where goods cross to and from Egypt, the speed of security scanning of goods passing between Gaza and Israel, and the means of allowing individuals "safe passage" between Gaza and the West Bank. We can't expect miracles here."Mr Abbas will be hoping for at least some improvement by 25 January, the date he announced yesterday for postponed legislative council elections. So much so that Saleh Abdel Shafi, a prominent independent economist who is a consultant to the pre-disengagement commissions set up by PA minister Mohammed Dahlan, said if anything he was concerned that expectations may actually now be too high given the time it will take for the economy to improve "I am not pessimistic," he said "But I am not euphoric either.
It was a sign that he means what he says about the PA controlling new territory for the benefit of the people.While international diplomats believe that much more of the new territory will be subject to private Palestinian ownership claims than the 3 per cent estimated by the PA, Mr Abbas promised in meetings with officials last week that any documented private claims to land left by the settlers would be considered by the courts.After saturation coverage of last week's evictions, sceptical Gazans have become more optimistic. At the same time, Mr Abbas last week authorised the highly popular - if symbolic - bulldozing of a villa built illegally on PA land by a senior and much feared security official. But Netzarim, the settlement just to the south of Gaza City, has already been earmarked for storage facilities for an adjacent seaport. PA sources said they did not expect a formal handover for another month as the army bulldozes the homes and itself withdraws from the area.PA officials complain that the planning task has been severely hampered by Israel's refusal so far to allow experts into the settlement areas to conduct land-use feasibility studies. There is also the need to demonstrate that the PA can manage the handover in the interests of its mainly poverty-stricken 1.3m population.The Israeli army has begun digging eight-metre trenches round the largest Gush Katif settlement block to help to prevent premature encroachments by celebrating or land-hungry Palestinians.
