(from my e-mail)
Info Alert
November 14, 2005
According to the much-lauded unilateral Israeli “disengagement” plan, the ability of the Palestinians to build stability, democracy, and prosperity in Gaza will serve as a litmus test of whether they are “ready” to take over full control of the West Bank. However, Israeli controls over movement in and out of Gaza and conditions imposed under the unilateral disengagement plan all but ensure that the tiny enclave will remain perpetually impoverished and instable, thus providing the Israeli leadership with the evidence it needs to make the case that the Palestinians can’t possibly be trusted in managing and building their own state.
Gaza has received promises of aid from the United States, the European Union, the G-8 industrialized countries, and the Middle East, and James Wolfensohn was appointed to oversee the disengagement policy and to help launch Gaza into orbit and out of its long downward economic spiral.
However, as reported by the International Press Center today, Wolfensohn said that the next 72 hours would be crucial for the future of his mission in the Palestinian territories, and expressed his concern that the Gaza Strip was becoming a big prison. Israeli Radio reported that his statements came during a meeting with the directors of the Karni Crossing (between Gaza and Israel), and that his concerns would be relayed to Condoleezza Rice during a meeting in Tel Aviv today or tomorrow.
His remarks underline the desperate situation in Gaza, despite the “disengagement” of Jewish colonists almost three months ago.
The Strip is currently in the midst of an economic and humanitarian crisis, according to Sara Roy in the London Review of Books. Access to healthcare and education is quickly declining. The population, many thousands of whom are refugees from inside Israel, already has one of the highest densities in the world. In the Jabalya refugee camp, there are 74,000 people per square kilometer. For comparison, the density in Manhattan is 25,000 per square km. Furthermore, the severe economic depression is caused mainly by Israeli restrictions that have long served to greatly reduce levels of trade and prevent the labor force from holding jobs inside Israel. As a result, between 35 and 40 percent of Gazans are unemployed. Between 65 and 75 percent are below the poverty line.
The disengagement plan calls for Israel to reduce the number of Palestinians working inside the country and to eventually block them from doing so altogether. Yet Gaza’s economy has long been dependent on the flow of workers and products into Israel. Now, without access to labor markets, the economy of Gaza will inevitably remain stagnant. As such, there can be no emergence of any viable economic, and hence political, independence in Gaza.
The disengagement plan also calls for the continued “exclusive authority” of Israel over the airspace and territorial waters of Gaza. They will also continue to be responsible for supplying electricity, water, and gas to the enclave. Israel will even retain control over the issuing of identity cards needed to cross over the few strictly controlled gateways of entry into Israel. Furthermore, there are also systems of fences and barriers erected by the Israelis encircling the territory, ensuring that all movement in and out of Gaza remains under Israeli auspices.
Also of crucial importance to Gaza’s economic independence is the reopening of the border crossing with Egypt at Rafah. Israel had originally closed the crossing before the withdrawal in September, saying at the time that it would have to stay shut for six months in order to establish new security and customs provisions. Yet six months is a perilously long time to wait for Gaza’s dilapidated economy, which relies heavily on the flow of goods to and from Egypt through Rafah. Reopening the border could also serve to show Gazans a tangible benefit of the Israeli withdrawal as they assert sovereignty over their international border for the first time. However, Israel continues to drag its feet in the ongoing negotiations, citing security concerns over the use of the crossing by militants.
On these negotiations, Wolfensohn said today, “time is not in favor of the Israelis and the Palestinians to reach an agreement about the terminal, and that not reaching an agreement soon is a catastrophe.”
With the current state of Israeli control and the continued terrorizing of Gaza’s people by Israeli artillery and warplanes, it is hard to fathom how any viable economy or “mini-state” could emerge to demonstrate the “readiness” of Palestinians to control their own lands. The handful of Jewish colonists who were recently removed from the enclave were given significant compensation for being forced to leave Gaza by the Israeli government. Yet their inconvenience seems little compared to the Palestinians left behind in a territory that has been rendered perpetually economically impotent by Israel’s policies.
This Information Alert was adapted from an Opinion editorial written by CNI Intern Reilly Vinall called Israeli Air Force “Phantom Raids” Over Gaza Just One Example of Collective Punishment and Tightening Control After “Disengagement” on the website.
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Further reading via Information Clearing House:
Sen. Clinton: I support W. Bank fence:
From the lookout, Clinton could see the barrier change from a concrete wall around parts of Jerusalem to an electrified fence on the approach to the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
Hillary Clinton: ‘This [Wall] is Not Against Palestinians’:
I am sure that the Palestinians are reassured by Ms. Clinton’s gibberish that the wall is not against them. And I am sure that they are duly edified that they must ‘change their attitudes about terrorism.’ I’d like to know what other ethnic group Clinton could stereotype so callously and get away with it. What craven, self serving claptrap.