Just like that movie "Escape from New York"...
Gaza Pullout: Prepare for the World's Largest Prison
By Ushani Agalawatta
JERUSALEM - "This plan is good for Israel in any future scenario,"
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said of the Gaza pullout. And it
may not be as good for Palestinians as it seems.
Israel's disengagement from Gaza set to begin in less than 48 hours is
a historic twist in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. It may seem like a
step forward in this conflict-torn region, but some analysts think it
is no more than an olive branch meant to jump-start the peace process.
"One doesn't have to travel far to find reasons for Israel's
withdrawal from Gaza, since this has been elaborated by the Israelis
themselves," Nadia Hijab from the Beirut-based Institute for
Palestine Studies told IPS. She quoted the remarks of Sharon's senior
adviser Dov Weisglass who had said: "The significance of the
disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process...effectively,
this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it
entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda."
Weisglass had said in an interview with Haaretz magazine last year:
"When you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a
Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the
borders and Jerusalem...disengagement supplies the amount of
formaldehyde (a compound that maintains a given condition) that is
necessary so there will not be a political process with the
Palestinians."
On August 17, Israeli soldiers will begin forcefully removing remaining
Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip. "Dismantling illegal
settlements and military installations in the Gaza Strip is definitely
a positive step and undoubtedly a big victory for all Palestinian
people; however in and of itself, it will not lead to peace, and
certainly not a just and lasting peace," Josh Ruebner from the U.S..
campaign to end the occupation told IPS.
"Disengagement from Gaza raises a lot of troubling questions, most
importantly the question of whether the Gaza Strip will be besieged
post-disengagement," he said. "Because in reality, Israel will
maintain a full-scale land, air, and water siege of the Gaza Strip
which is exactly what (U.S.) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said
that Israel cannot do. Disengagement may in fact keep Gaza as the
world's largest open air prison."
While the international community is fixated on the dramatic pullout
from Gaza, watching images of distraught settlers being handed eviction
notices, and listening to a somber Israeli Prime Minister expressing
grief over the decision to pull out, few are raising even an eyebrow
about Israeli expansion in the West Bank, and the wall which is
effectively creating isolated enclaves of Palestinians..
"Sharon seems to be betting that the Israelis can afford a situation
of no-war, no-peace, as he swallows more Palestinian land in the West
Bank land for settlements and the wall, separating Palestinians from
their fields and from each other into small areas sealed off by
impenetrable borders," Hijab said.
The construction of the 'security' wall began in 2002. It runs from the
north to the south in the West Bank and it runs in and around
Jerusalem. In addition to the construction of the wall the Israeli
government is pursuing a plan which expands settlements in the West
Bank and increases the area of the original municipality of Jerusalem,
squeezing out several Palestinian Jerusalemite families.
The West Bank is the Palestinian area under Israeli control that lies
west of the Jordan river. The Jordan river marks the border between
Jordan on its the east, and Israel including the West Bank area. The
further dispute is over Jerusalem which is on the border between the
West Bank and Israel proper, which is to the west of the West Bank. The
Gaza Strip is a Palestinian conclave on the other side of Israel along
the Mediterranean Sea.
While all eyes are on Gaza, the Israeli Cabinet has approved a decision
to move forward with completion of the wall in east Jerusalem, Ruebner
told IPS.
The International Crisis Group, an independent group that reports on
crises around the world recently reported that "the wall, which is
being used to redefine Jerusalem's borders, is routed in occupied
Palestinian territory in such a way as to maximize the number of
Palestinian Jerusalemites behind the wall, while maximizing the amount
of Palestinian land on the 'Israeli' side of the wall."
The group estimates that "55,000 Palestinian residents of
Israeli-defined municipal Jerusalem, together with another estimated
60,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites living outside the municipal borders
will be effectively cut off from their city, and forced to access their
schools, hospitals, religious sites and even families through Israeli
military 'gates'. In addition, West Bank residents (including many
laborers dependent on East Jerusalem jobs) will lose all access to East
Jerusalem."
Hind Khoury, the Palestinian Authority's minister for Jerusalem
affairs, wrote in the International Herald Tribune that "Israeli
demolitions of Palestinian homes in and around occupied East Jerusalem
are increasingly common, with more than 50 homes destroyed so far this
year." Khoury said that "Israel greedily insists on retaining
control over the whole of Jerusalem. Indeed, Israel, as a Jewish state,
rejects the very idea of a pluralistic Jerusalem."
But Hijab says "what is interesting -- and hopeful -- in this
otherwise gloomy scenario is the way that the Palestinian people
themselves are responding, and the resonance their response is having
around the world." She said that about 170 Palestinian coalitions,
associations, and organizations issued a call on July 9 for boycott,
divestment, and sanctions as non-violent punitive measures to be
applied until Israel complies with international law.
Reply
.
|
