On Aug. 15, Gaza’s Jewish colonizers should have packed up the silverware along with their surfboards for this is the day Sharon’s disengagement plan is slated for implementation. In theory, they should wave goodbye to their beach-front homes in fenced tree-lined suburbs, turn off their fountains and, flush with generous re-location packages head off into the sunset in an orderly fashion. The reality, though, looks likely to be otherwise.
While it’s true that many of the 8,500 colonizers, who make up less than one percent of Gaza’s population yet control more than 15 percent of prime land, are resigned to the resettlement plan, the ideologues among them are determined to resist.
Reuters quotes an Orthodox Jew, who moved to Gush Katif two years ago, as saying, “God gave this land to us. We must never give it up. Soldiers will have to drag me out.”
Now that the decision has been taken to dismantle all the colonizers’ homes — as announced by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday — it will be interesting to see whether Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) bulldozers will resort to demolishing those homes literally over the heads of intransigent occupiers as happened in Jenin. Naturally, I jest.
Referring to the proposed pullout as “vile”, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu has urged reservists in the IDF to disobey eviction orders.
“Serving jail time for the Torah is a privilege”, he says, adding, “If conscripts are forced to participate in the evacuation, they should enter the settlers’ homes, sit on the floor, and cry with the family.”
No doubt, many of Gaza’s 1.3 million Palestinians will be crying, too, from relief at seeing the back of the occupier after decades of struggle and humiliation. But while one struggle ends, another will begin: That of turning Gaza from a virtual open-air prison into a thriving community, which will one day form part of a viable and contiguous Palestine.
This will be no easy task. Palestinian negotiator on the disengagement Mohammed Dahlan has accused Israel of “employing tricks”. Dahlan has met with the Israeli authorities on ten occasions and, on each, he has been thwarted in his attempts to gain assurances regarding border crossings and the export of Gaza’s produce.
Other issues, such as the reopening of the “safe passage” between Gaza and the West Bank, the control of the Rafah crossing to Egypt, the rebuilding of Gaza’s airport bombed by the Israelis, and the handing over of plans detailing the electricity and water grids are also being ignored by Israel, says Dahlan.
Israeli Cabinet Minister Shimon Peres appears sympathetic. He states: “It is impossible to withdraw from Gaza, and leave 1.3 million Palestinians closed off on all sides, without livelihoods, and without the ability to sustain themselves”. But, thus far, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon seems untroubled by those details.
Instead, Sharon seems bent on isolating Gaza even further with the construction of a 950 meter underwater barrier, already under way. The first 150 meters will consist of cement pilings dug into the seabed, while the rest will be a deep floating fence fitted with electronic sensors. According to the Jerusalem Post, Israeli officials have said the sea barrier is essential to abort “Palestinian attacks” from the sea.
The high-profile Palestinian official Saeb Erekat is furious. “I hoped the Israeli mentality of barriers will end,” he said. “Now they have land barriers, and tomorrow sea barriers, and the day after, sky barriers and what else? Will they put a barrier around each Palestinian individual or house?”
But these problems are just the tip of the iceberg. While Sharon is determined to amputate Gaza, and let the Palestinians deal with both the tangible and intangible debris, he is similarly set on increasing the Jewish presence around Jerusalem, despite US and international condemnation.
Indeed, on Sunday, as Ms. Rice warned Israel not to create facts on the ground that would prejudge final settlement terms under the terms of “the road map”, Israel announced plans to expand the West Bank colonies of Maale Adumim and Beitar Eilit, which translates to annexed East Jerusalem being surrounded by Jewish homes.
At the same time, according to Palestinian Minister Hind Khuri, Israel plans for the “systematic destruction of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem,” using the pretext that they were built without government permits. This, she says, will leave 1,000 Palestinians homeless and will make allow Maale Adumim to virtually merge with occupied East Jerusalem.
The rise in popularity of Hamas, whose leaders are eager to join the political process, is yet another major headache for the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). Indeed, this trend is threatening Palestine’s much-vaunted new democratic spirit and for all the White House spin on the ballot box representing the be all and end all of just about everything, if Hamas were to win a national election, it would be rejected by the Bush administration as a terrorist organization.
It is surely no accident that upon the return of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas from Washington, he issued a presidential decree indefinitely postponing Palestinian Legislative Council elections due to take place on July 17. According to Graham Usher writing in Ahram Weekly, the deferral was greeted by White House officials with responses ranging from “quiet relief to elation”.
This move may have calmed fears in Washington and Tel Aviv but Hamas leaders are incensed, accusing Abbas of reneging on a promise to keep to the election timetable in return for a moratorium on attacks against Israel.
There is no doubt that Mahmoud Abbas needs to be a magician and a juggler as well as a politician.
Somehow or the other he has to keep both Washington and Hamas on board along with his own Fatah supporters for a Palestinian state to manifest. For this, he needs more than a little help from his friends, especially those on Pennsylvania Avenue, to draw Hamas into the democratic equation.
Let’s face it, without a political incentive, Hamas is not going to lay down its weapons, which will play right into Sharon’s hands and give him the perfect pretext to continue with his walls and settlement expansions. “We were willing to play ball, but they wouldn’t stop the terror,” he’ll no doubt say with a smirk, while his Washington pals will shake their heads and “tut-tut”, leaving the Palestinians right back where they started.
