| Much Ado About Nothing
By
Christine Lane
It took Israel’s
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the full weight of the
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) less than one week to
remove 8,500 illegal settlers from that sliver of
Palestinian land known as the Gaza Strip. For the past
years they have commandeered the best real estate by the
sea, represented some 0.5% of the resident population,
commandeered some 44% of the Strip, and who truly
believed that they were granted this land by God himself,
but this time the HE stayed in heaven. Where there is a
political will there is a way. But what is that will, and
what is the way? It took the IOF armed to the teeth a
little more time to devastate Gaza and the West Bank.
For the past few weeks
both the regional and foreign media have been obsessed
even infatuated with the proposed withdrawal or so called
‘unilateral disengagement’ from Gaza.
Vicariously described as a major move for peace, a
window of opportunity, a historic and brave decision or
the beginning of the end in terms of the establishment of
a sovereign Palestinian State. The issue is much to do
about nothing.
Images of the weeping and
wailing-the great sacrifices to be made by the illegal
settlers spread across the television screens of the gang
forced to leave their luxury red-roofed villas and
swimming pools overlooking the dereliction of Gaza. Such
protests from these settlers who were not in any way the
owners of the land! Can you imagine the feelings of the
real owners when they were expelled from Palestine in
1948? Now, messianic Jews barricaded themselves into an
old British fortress, or retreated into Synagogues; one
settler died as a result of self-igniting herself; some
threw acid at the Israeli soldiers. The media sought to
show how much these now dispossessed settlers are
suffering-maybe in the aftermath some will claim that
their human rights were violated-whereas they have lived
impervious to the distress of their displaced neighbours
and alongside blatant poverty. For years they thoroughly
thrived on their financial perks and privileges. Again,
one can only wonder how during the protests some 5,000
Israeli pro-settlements activists could enter Gaza when
not one Palestinian can move either way. Where were the
paraylsing Israeli checkpoints-but of course many Israeli
soldiers are settlers themselves! Somehow there is an
element of farce here. A bus load of settlers being
returned to Israel escaped from the bus and ran into
Palestinian territory- they simply took another wrong
turn!
Sharon has proved that he
can turn Israel around on its axis, but has he struck a
cord and proved that anything is possible He has
inadvertently opened a Pandora’s box that he may not
be able to escape from.
By and large the Israeli
public remained passive. For many Israelis settlers are
aliens; many ask why should they wish to live in the Palestinian
Territories in the first place? The Israel public has
equally remained passive over the years to the oppression
and suffering of the Palestinian people under a barbaric
Occupation. The settlers were manipulated to move to Gaza
and now manipulated to move out. It’s a case of Israel’s
self-imposed demographic misery and Sharon’s imposed
strategy. Again hypocritically described as a unilateral
move for peace whereas it was no more than a thinly
disguised camouflage to cement Israel’s hold on the
West Bank and in particular East Jerusalem, the greatest
booty. The Palestinians are celebrating quite
understandably the return of Gaza but they will quickly
realize that this was indeed a move by Israel to its
advantage only. Yet it is the Palestinians who will be
required to pass an involuntary litmus test, and to be
held responsible for the ‘disengagement’s
success, which is nothing less than perverse.
But let’s look more
closely at the issue; what has been left behind, aside
from 80,000 tons of rubble and 16 synagogues, the latter
a provocation in itself, and what is there to look
forward to? Gaza has been theoretically under the
governance of the Palestinian national Authority since
July 1994 but in reality totally under the military
control of Israel and the IOF. It is one of the most
deprived areas in the world with a population of almost
1.4 million, (including 996,000 refugees), with poverty
rate of 55% [United Nations Report, 2004] and every
movement, human or economic subject to severe Israeli
restrictions. Since 1993 USAID has spent more than $1.7
billion in the West Bank and Gaza to combat poverty,
create jobs, improve education and build roads, but given
the years of physical abuse and destruction by Israel
such an amount is but a drop in the proverbial bucket.
Further, no amount of aid will revive the Palestinian
economy unless there is free access to trade,
investments, and the freedom to develop its own model of
political and economic life.
Early joys expressed when
Arafat returned quickly turned to dust. The Gaza airport
and the sea port were destroyed by Israeli invasions.
Over the past four years and particularly during 2004,
the IOF ransacked and vandalized homes and properties and
summarily killed murdered and assassinated Palestinian
leaders at will and with impunity. Helicopter gunships
fired at random into crowds, bombs dropped on residential
quarters, and brutal incursions into refugee camps. A 100
tank 8 day invasion into Jabalyia refugee camp (home to
100,000) beginning October 2nd 2004, killing
85 people. Following the US Veto of an Arab proposed UN
Security Council Resolution in October 2004 calling for
the condemnation of Israel’s running onslaught in Gaza,
in January 2005, Israeli tanks shelled 8 children near
Beit Lahya Camp; the children were picking strawberries.
During 2004 some such incursions were given names; Khanis
Yunis-“Orange Iron”. Following Israeli
loudspeakers announcements of the impending incursions
residents were warned to leave to or risk death, 600, men
women and children had to flee their homes. Jabalya
incursion in northern Gaza- named “Autumn
Winds.” Should such massacres ever have occurred in
any other part of the world it would have given rise to a
global outcry, but over Palestine-silence!
From the end of September
2,000 until now, 1,719 killed the majority of them
civilians, 379 children under the age of 18; and 96
women, [Palestinian Bureau of Statistics]. Children
playing football, children feeding pigeons on the roof of
their home, a child in the street going to buy bread-such
security threats! The Philadelphi route [border with Egypt]
was pulverized, 2,704 homes demolished 23,000 left
homeless with a future under canvas. The settlers on the
other hand who drove or were dragged away are facing
handsome compensation of between $140,000 and $400,000
for the cost of their home, for which they only paid a
nominal price in the first place.
So what future lies ahead
for Gaza and its residents? One thing is clear they will
remain imprisoned with no control over their land or air
space-no control of borders and no free flow of goods.
No. No. No. Recently Israel announced a total closure of
the Rafah checkpoint that borders Egypt- people are
trapped. In 2004 the World Bank reported that
“poverty and unemployment will rise following the
disengagement.” Currently, of the 125,000
Palestinian workers, 100,000 workers are no longer
permitted to work in Israel and with closed borders,
restrictions on the free flow of Gazan produce there will
be little chance for economic recovery. Any repair of the
bombed Gaza airport could take years and it is doubtful
if Israel would permit free air traffic between Gaza and
the rest of the world However-the fishing may improve!
According to Mark Regev,
spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, “We
want to transfer all Gaza to the Palestinians….but
the transfer will depend upon the security
situation.” O’h no, yet more Israel security
considerations when it stands as one the tightest,
tiniest little states in the globe.
So this is what Israel
has escaped from, poverty and physical devastation. There
will be speculation as to why Sharon concluded to
‘withdraw’ from Gaza. but there is no clearer
indicator than given by Dov Weissglas-senior advisor to
Sharon (Ha’arezt October 2004). Just so there could
be no illusions he described the proposed disengagement
as actually formaldehyde-“it provided the necessary
amount so that there will be no political process with
the Palestinians.” Formaldehyde is the chemical used
to preserve dead bodies. George W. Bush and both Houses
of Congress gave their approval of the plan. Forever, the
Israeli occupation of Gaza had been problematic and
perhaps the time had come for Sharon to cut his losses.
Perhaps he welcomed the furore from the settlers so that
he could appear so ‘brave’. Certainly he was
relieved to leave Gaza but with a glint in his eye. The
word to stay on the lips is ‘unilateral’. In no
way does Sharon ever intend to enter any negotiations
regarding a future Palestinian State or to cede any part
of the West Bank and in particular and especially Jerusalem.
To have secured US approval for the withdrawal from Gaza
but continue to seal it, allows him to concentrate on
more vital aspects. Sharon can focus on his ultimate
passion, namely full demographic control of illegally
annexed East Jerusalem, and expansion of the larger
settlements in the West Bank.
There is nothing new
here; in 1967 Yigal Allon Israeli’s then Deputy
Prime Minister called for Israel to colonise strategic
areas of the West Bank, maintain control over natural
resources, especially water, and to grant marginal
freedom to densely populated Palestinian areas where
colonization proved problematic. Nothing has changed. The
Oslo Agreement of the 1990’s, Camp David in 2000
reflected the Allon Plan which offered sovereignty over
disjointed territories, dominated by a reinforced network
of settlements and exclusive roads, and the inevitable
Israeli checkpoints. In 2004 the US President validated Israel’s
Zionist territorial ambitions, no return to 1967 borders,
Israel’s right to permanently maintain settlement
blocs and no right of return for Palestinian refugees.
The driving force is to maintain the exclusiveness of a
Zionist exclusive Jewish State? Somewhat problematic
given that one fifth of the population inside Israel are
Palestinians. Herewith the concept of separation was
born, and the ‘Separation Wall’ made
its bedmate.
The Wall, built almost
entirely on Palestinian land, curls like a snake
throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem gorging on
everything in its wake. It stands like an overpowering
concrete monstrosity, and is 26ft high. Israel has
succeeded in completely ignoring the judgment of the International
Court in The Hague on its illegality [July 9th,
2004]. In its entirety it is expected to see the
confiscation of some 160,000-180,000 dunums (45,000
acres), 2% of the entire West Bank. The uprooting of
80,000 olive trees, the destruction of 35 kilometres of
water pipes and the demolition of dozens of greenhouses.
Any structure or home within 35 metres of the barrier
will be demolished. Entire villages are cut off from
their lands and sources of livelihood; 55,000 Palestinian
residents of Jerusalem will be effectively isolated from
their city, and forced to access essential services
through Israeli military gates. Does anyone recognize
that Israel has locked in itself in and locked the
Palestinians out?
East Jerusalem is a dying
city, strangled by surrounding illegal settlements and
the cement necklace of the Wall. Many villages and some
individual homes are surrounded on three sides, and blue
skies are not easily visible. Upon completion of
the plan for the Jerusalem section of the Wall, it
will carve Israel’s illegal occupation of East
Jerusalem in wire and cement. But Separation has been
achieved.
There is the additional
hope that life will become so uncomfortable that many
Palestinians will leave. Over many years, Israeli
policies of denial for Jerusalemites, denial of Identity
Cards, denial of residency (or withdrawal) denial of
family reunification and demolition of homes. Fifty
Palestinian homes in Jerusalem were destroyed this year
alone. 64 around the Old City are awaiting demolition and
some 10,000 properties in East Jerusalem slated according
to the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions.
When all eyes were on Gaza,
Sharon announced his government’s plans to
confiscate more Palestinian lands, an area even larger
than the Gaza Strip to add some 3,500 homes to the colony
of Ma’aleh Adumim, a huge sprawling concrete colony
that overlooks Jerusalem. Its radius is planned to double
that of Tel Aviv, Israel largest city. It would involve
the confiscation of some 1,600 dunums [1,600,000 square
metres] of fertile land from four old traditional
villages in the suburbs of East Jerusalem. This is indeed
a horrific development and in fragrant violation of the
1993 Bush ‘roadmap’ which demands that Israel
freeze all settlement construction. Again it will
completely sever East Jerusalem, and the north from the
south West Bank. Again it will make Palestinians claim to
East Jerusalem as its capital absolutely impossible.
So while Israel is
‘disengaging from Gaza, and four small settlements
in the West Bank it is‘ re-engaging’ in vast
new settlement construction. The West Bank settlements
grew by 12,800 this year alone; quoting Gild Heiman,
Israeli spokesperson from the Ministry of Interior. Finally
places a total of 246,000 illegal settlers amidst
2.4 million Palestinians. Regrettably there is no room
for optimism such as expressed by Palestinian President
Abbas, “Israel must stop settlements and the
judaization of Jerusalem. Those who continue withthese
measures show that they do not want peace.” Sharon
quoting from The Jerusalem Post, “There will be
building in the settlement blocs. Each Israeli government
since 1967-right, left and national unity, has seen
strategic importance in specific areas (beyond the Green
Line). I will build”. Whatever happened to
settlements as the major obstacle to peace? While the
American administration may be concerned, it helps not at
all when George Bush states “any final peace
settlement must recognize new realities on the
ground.”
Despite all these
developments the onus is still placed on the Palestinian
leadership to curb ‘terrorism’, to institute
reforms and good governance. All rather difficult
concerning that during 2002 the IOF rampaged throughout
the West Bank, destroyed the entire infrastructure of
Palestinian civil society. That aside, the problem is not
with alleged Palestinian terrorism; in the words of South
African writer Alan Paton in 1946 “it is not native
crime that is the problem but white crime”; from Cry
The Beloved Country. In a parallel analogy it is not
Palestinian resistance that is the problem but Israeli
State terrorism, driven by greed, a dominance obsession
all reflected by the Occupation.
Despite 38 years of a
repressive and cruel Occupation the Palestinian people
have not been conquered or subdued and are determined to
take back their freedoms on their land, and to secure an
independent sovereign State of Palestine whatever the
difficulties and however long it takes. At the same time,
as for the State of Israel founded on some 2,000 year old
ashes and existing now Rambo style on the original
Palestinian homeland, and empowered only by the Israeli
rifle. Surely one day all Israeli citizens will come to
realize that the Occupation must eventually disintegrate
as a result of its moral and humanitarian corruption and
the Palestinian people set free.
Looking to the future. As
for one solution in the words of the Israeli activist Uri
Avnery, “we must start serious negotiations
declaring that in advance that within a specific
time-span -the occupation will end with the establishment
of the State of Palestine. All the main elements of the
settlement are already known; a solution from Jerusalem
in line with the Clinton proposal (What is Arab will
belong to Palestine, what is Jewish will belong to Israel).”
Somewhat tricky one would have thought given that the
entire State of Israel was founded on Palestinian land
conquered by war in 1948, and created 700,000 displaced
refugees.
So what about the future
as Sharon continues to flatten all hope? Clearly alone
the Palestinian leadership can achieve nothing. And there
is little to look forward to. The American administration
is still dancing with the fat man. It continues to send
envoys, and continues to support Israel in its violation
of the Articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention, UN
Resolutions and international law. The international
community must still be considering its options. In the
meantime where is the Quartet? The
Palestinian leadership is to a large extent dependent
upon the United States to find the courage to pressure Israel
to end the Occupation, and enter a full and negotiated
withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem with the
Palestine National Authority. Unless this happens, we
will all fall into the abyss and perpetual darkness.
Christine M. Lane
Christine is originally
from Wales, is a free lance writer and has lived in Palestine
for many years.
ChristineLane 2002@yahoo.com
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