Leaving Gaza ? A Calculated Move

By Brita Rose

23 August, 2005
Countercurrents.org

As the world gazes upon Gaza and the historic unilateral so-called 
'disengagement' of Israeli forces and 8,000 Jewish settlers from that 
small strip of land on the Mediterranean Sea, emotions are running high 
on both sides. After 38 years of occupation, since Israel seized the 
land during the 1967 war, many have dreamed of this day. Palestinians 
anticipate a better life and a step towards statehood. Israelis long 
for an end to the violence that has besieged them since the first 
Intifada broke out. But celebrations and hopes notwithstanding, this 
move in reality is more like a smokescreen to divert our eyes from a 
more systemic problem ? the continued occupation of the West Bank and 
East Jerusalem. 

Far from being part of a peace plan, or a move towards an independent 
Palestinian state, this is a last resort on the part of Israeli Prime 
Minister, Ariel Sharon, to politically maneuver in order to secure the 
real issue at stake ? the larger West Bank with its holy shrines and 
numerous settlers; According to the Washington-based Foundation for 
Middle East Peace some 200,000 settlers now reside in the West Bank and 
180,000 in East Jerusalem. Sharon himself admitted that he had no faith 
in the Palestinians' desire for peace. This is not about peace, but 
rather the demographic survival of Israel. 

The world is under no illusion that Gaza is of any intrinsic value to 
the Israelis ? a desert with limited natural resources, a Palestinian 
population growing exponentially, and home to Israel's loudest trouble 
makers - Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. What Israelis are giving up (and 
indirectly Americans too) is tax dollars ? each settler is reportedly 
slated to receive up to half a million dollars in compensation. What 
the Israeli Likud party is counting on, albeit temporarily, is the 
political advantage of assuaging the international community that it is 
willing to sacrifice land for peace. Images of Israeli soldiers 
forcibly removing settlers from their homes will only serve to bolster 
the illusion, in the U.S. in particular, that Israel means business.

Meanwhile, Sharon, knows all too well that the Palestinian Authority 
(PA), under Mahmoud Abbas, cannot control its radical fringe any more 
than Arafat before him could given the continued 'facts on the ground' 
in the West Bank; Neither is he likely to be able to any time soon. We 
have to give Sharon ? ironically the father of the illegal settlement 
policy - credit for his determination in seeing this come to pass 
against the will of his own cabinet. But while the occupation of the 
West Bank continues unrestrained, the recipe for an escalation of 
attacks on Israel from Gaza remains the same; with that there will be 
renewed justification, on the part of Israel for reoccupying the strip, 
or worse for using excessive force in the vain of Jenin. We could be 
right back to square one.

The publicizing of this so-called 'peace initiative' is all too 
ironic. It is now illegal for Jews to enter Gaza? It was illegal 
before. We empathize with the settlers who are now forced from their 
homes, but what of the 23,000 plus Gazans who have lost their homes in 
recent years? Where were the cameras when their houses were destroyed? 
Who was there to witness the systematic destruction of Jenin ? where 
according to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), Human Rights 
Watch documented 52 people killed by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), 
including 22 civilians, many of whom "were killed willfully or 
unlawfully"? Or Jabalya - whereby according to the Palestinian Center 
for Human Rights (PCHR), excessive and disproportionate use of force 
resulted in 60 Palestinian deaths and at least 280 injuries. The number 
of Palestinian children alone killed during the Intifada is well over 
500, and according to the Palestine Monitor no less than 1,321,000 
Palestinian children alone have encountered deprivation and disease 
because of the occupation. 

While reporters descend upon Gaza this week interviewing countless 
Jewish settlers and soldiers, for whom we can deeply sympathize, 
Palestinian workers who face massive job losses, go unnoticed. Where is 
their compensation? Thousands of Palestinians, who worked either across 
the boarder in Israel, or were employed by the settlers themselves, 
will now be without work. How will these individuals (already surviving 
on minimum wage) feed their families? Who is reporting Israel's 
international human rights violations in the popular media? Detentions, 
imprisonments and executions without trial, the torture of prisoners 
and the routine humiliation of checkpoints and closures throughout the 
territories, as recorded by Amnesty International and Human Rights 
Watch, never received such media attention. Neither have the non-
violent protests against these practices including the on-going 
construction of the 'Apartheid Wall', whereby farmers have been beaten 
by boarder police for their passive resistance to the illegal razing of 
their land. 

In spite of the desperate conditions left by four decades of illegal 
occupation, we can hope that Gaza's 1.3 million inhabitants will make 
some strides towards economic prosperity now that they are free from 
full military presence and, hopefully, will receive aid from Israel, 
the U.S. and Arab neighbors. But there lies the rub. Without the 
support of other nations, particularly Israel and the U.S., Abbas is 
unlikely to be able to pull this off. As things stand today there was 
little by way of preparation on Israel's part to aid the P.A. in 
bolstering its security and ensuring that people and goods will be able 
to move freely across the boarder. With all the hype of disengagement, 
in fact Israel will retain control of all borders including the 
Gaza/Egypt border and will continue to regulate the flow of goods. The 
IDF will merely redeploy troops outside the Gaza Strip, which will 
remain surrounded with barbed wire, watchtowers and Israeli armed 
guards. In effect, Gazans will still remain prisoners in their own 
land. If President Bush wants to realize a viable Palestinian state, he 
will need to bring fast aid the P.A. and hold Israel accountable for 
its future policies and actions.

For Palestinians still under occupation in the West Bank as well as 
for those still living in restricted Gaza, this withdrawal is viewed 
with obvious skepticism; As long as the issue at the heart of the 
Intifada remains unresolved ? the occupation - so will the resistance. 
The WB is the biblical heartland of the Jews and home to over 2 million 
Palestinians. Many of these residents, like Gaza's, either fled or were 
forced from 'Greater Israel' as refugees in 1967 and remain in crowded 
refugee camps; Others have a long history of farming the land ? 
families who can trace their ancestors back several generations. 

Check points and closures make moving about the region almost 
unbearable ? residents are kept waiting for hours, sometimes days, 
while trying to go about their daily life, meanwhile goods spoil or the 
ailing suffer needlessly. And the demolition of Palestinian homes 
around Jerusalem continues unabated ? 50 homes this year alone -whereby 
families are sometimes forced from their houses without warning before 
the buildings are bulldozed before their eyes. 

The average annual income of a Palestinian family in the WB is still 
only $1,700, and the unemployment rate is as high as 60%. The 
Palestinian infrastructure is still recovering from the damages ? 
around $350 million worth - caused by the Israeli army; A quarter of 
Palestinian households still have no piped water, no electricity, no 
adequate sewage, no telephones and scarce clean water. Meanwhile, 
Israeli settlers within viewing distance bask in their swimming pools. 
We hear little of these realities from the media whose focus is still 
on the more sensational suicide bombings in Israel. But how will 
disengagement come to them if Israel turns a deaf ear on these 
conditions in addition to continuing the relentless construction of the 
illegal 'Wall'? This wall, which is snaking its way over the green line 
expanding the Israeli boarder to include settlements, is cutting off 
many Palestinians from their villages, homes, vineyards, schools, 
hospitals or places or work, not to mention their places of worship in 
East Jerusalem. It is a strategy to keep as many Palestinians outside 
the boarder as they can; More than 6,500 Palestinians have lost 
residency rights as Israel strives to alienate as many Palestinian 
Christians and Muslims as possible. 

The media also overlooks Israel's ambitious plans to illegally build 
more settlements in key locations around East Jerusalem at an 
increasingly rapid pace - some 3,500 - while the removal of settlements 
in Gaza is being lauded. To many Palestinians, for whom self dignity, 
autonomy and empowerment have so long eluded them, such inconsistencies 
will be glaring even in the light of Gaza's glory day. They will see 
through the hypocrisy and continue the resistance until their vision of 
ending occupation and of realizing a state in the West Bank and Gaza 
are given political dimensions that resonate with their hopes and 
dreams. 


Brita Rose is a student of International Studies at the CUNY Graduate 
Center and a freelance writer 

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