Pullout by Israelis stirs fears over power
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel fears Gaza will become “Hamas-stan” after it withdraws this August, with Islamic militants taking over the reins of power.
Palestinians fear the pullout will turn the coastal strip into a big prison – isolated from the global economy and their brethren in the West Bank while Israel still controls its airspace and borders.
The world places high hopes on the pullback that could lead to a breakthrough in peacemaking. But the two sides hotly disagree about its meaning, and Gaza appears headed toward a state of limbo between occupation and statehood.
Some Israelis are worried that the withdrawal will embolden Hamas and others to step up their attacks – hence Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom’s recent “Hamas-stan” remark. Hamas, which advocates the destruction of Israel, has done well in recent municipal elections, capitalizing on widespread frustration over corruption in the ruling Fatah movement.
The Palestinian concern about the aftermath of the withdrawal was expressed by Mohammed Dahlan, the Cabinet minister in charge of coordinating the withdrawal with Israel.
“If what the Israelis are trying to do is to use … Palestinians as partners in trying to turn the Gaza Strip into a large prison, then the Palestinians simply are not going to be their partners,” he said.
Israel insists the Palestinians have a golden opportunity for self-rule, saying key elements of sovereignty – a seaport, a rail link to the West Bank and an open border with Egypt – are now possible.
“For all practical purposes it will be considered a foreign country, or I would say foreign territory. It would be outside of Israel’s jurisdiction altogether, the same way we treat Lebanon,” said Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
But Palestinian officials say building a seaport or railroad will take years, and that Gaza’s anguished people will want their lives to improve much quicker.
They also complain that Israel has been slow to offer vital information about the pullout, such as whether it plans to keep settlers’ houses intact or destroy them, or, if Palestinians take over abandoned Israeli greenhouses, how they will export the produce.
“Since (Israel) has the ability to maintain control over the area, to prohibit imports, prohibit exports, prohibit the movement of people, of goods … of course it’s still said to be an occupation,” said Diana Buttu, legal adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Gaza, captured by Israel from Egypt in 1967, is a war-shattered, fenced-in coastal enclave whose people are not free to come and go. Fifty-three percent of Gaza’s 1.3 million inhabitants live in poverty and 38 percent of its workers are unemployed, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. It borders on Egypt in the south, but there’s no certainty that frontier will be fully open.
Gaza faces the sea to the west and, around the rest of the strip, an Israeli fence built to hold back attackers.
Thousands of Palestinians used to cross into Israel each day to work, but that largely stopped about four years ago when a Palestinian uprising suddenly broke out. Most agree that chipping away at Gaza’s status as a breeding ground for hatred and discontent requires reducing its isolation.