Gaza disengagement…! By: Mohamed S. Kamel

Gaza disengagement…!

By: Mohamed S. Kamel*

Feb 2^nd, 2008

The occupation force thought the so called “Gaza disengagement” will make them irresponsible of the misery they created. Contrary to the reality, they will remain legally responsible for the welfare of the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, as well as their cousins in the west bank and the 1948 citizens.

International law considers Gaza Strip to be under occupation even after every single settler and soldier left. The reason for continued legal responsibility is mainly based on the fact that the occupation force insists on sealing all of Gaza’s borders to the outside world and has prevented the opening of a seaport or airport in Gaza for Palestinian use. In addition, they continue to control Gaza's territorial water and airspace and its main resources of water, fuel and electricity.

The fabricated problem between the Palestinian authorities and the elected government divided the 22% of Palestine into East (West Bank) and West (Gaza) territories reminding us of the miserable division of India into tow states (India and Pakistan) that lead to the division of Pakistan into Pakistan and Bangladesh fighting for Kashmir.

And that would be the very near future of the remaining of Palestine and that was the plan in each step of the so called peace process, from Madrid, Camp David, Oslo and now Annapolis.

The silence of the international community facing the inhuman situation in the occupied land became intolerable for the people of Gaza. Thus, they brought down the wall of Rafah, forcing the opening of the border and the creation of the new reality on the ground.

No one was prepared for the new reality. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans paraded into Sinai in search of food, cigarettes, medical supplies…etc. The Egyptian government was taken by surprise and was not able to re-act facing the Palestinians’ sufferance.

For the occupation forces, the opening of the Rafah border without any supervision or monitoring was described by some experts as the doomsday scenario, but it goes with the renewal of the old plan in two directions.

First, there would be the official separation of Gaza.  As per the writer Amira Hass said that the Palestine authorities concern for the collapse of the Rafah wall will provide the occupation forces with an additional excuse to finalize the separation of Gaza from the West Bank. There is nothing new in this tendency. The siege of Gaza has been developing gradually and persistently since 1991, and intensified during the Oslo years.

Secondly, would be the transfer plan.  As per the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger call for Gazans to be transferred to the Sinai Peninsula, to a Palestinian state which he said could be constructed for them in the desert.  In an interview with the British weekly, The Jewish News, the chief rabbi also said that while peaceable Muslims should be allowed to pray in Jerusalem mosques, they should recognize that Jerusalem belongs to the Jew. He called for Britain, the European Union and the United States to assist in the construction of a Palestinian state in Egypt's Sinai Desert.

On the other hand, Daniel Pipe’s defeat theory, were the New York writers insists that peace will come to the Middle-East only when Arab believe that they have been defeated and become fully convinced of their defeat. Until that day, he believes that “we have to keep hammering them…” , the main problem that facing Mr. Pipe’s theory is that while he thought that he was making history, he is not even able to read history.

Gaza’s story is neither the story of Rabbi Yona’s fantasy nor Daniel Pipe’s ignorance of Arabs and Muslims. Gaza is a story of strength because of its people’s capacity to live throughout this misery and to fight the injustice forced on them from everywhere.  

Gaza is not an isolated story, Gaza, as well as every district in the region, carry the story of Palestine and the Palestinian people, a story of a nation that did not and will not be broken by the brutality of its occupier or by the weakness of their brothers.

* Mohamed S. Kamel: is a Freelance writer, the editor of I.N. Daily http://indaily.net/ and the President of the Alternative Perspective Media (APM-RAM), could be reached at info@apm-ram.org