Leaders tend to stay at home in moments of crises. If caught out of their countries when trouble develops, they rush back. Nothing enhances the confidence of people in their leaders more than when they see them amongst them in hard times. This does not seem to be the case with the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. He embarked on an Arab and world tour just when at home he is most needed: his government is facing a possible no-confidence vote in the Palestinian assembly, and violence broke out between Israelis and Palestinians. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah explains this backward logic. Read more about Abbas' backward agenda: all constants and no variables
As a unilateral act, Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip raises basic questions for both sides in the conflict. For Israel, there is the question of how to define its deed: “Should we declare that the occupation of Gaza is over?” No less important are the questions Palestinians are asking: “Is this a victory? If so, who should get credit?” When Sharon prefers to speak of an end to Israeli “responsibility” rather than “occupation”, he means, above all, economic responsibility. He will discover, however, that Gaza, for its part, cannot disengage. Gazans cannot survive without access to jobs and export markets in Israel. Read more about Hurricane Gaza
It is only a matter of time before West Bankers start blasting holes in the wall Israel has built to contain them as though they were cattle. Right now, they seem to be satisfied with spraying graffiti on the wall and painting whimsical scenes of ladders and windows or representations of holes. On the Gaza Strip, in the fine tradition of great prison-escape movies, Hamas blasted a hole in the wall north of Rafah a few days ago to help people through. Islamic Jihad blasted a hole about a mile down the wall shortly after that. EI contributor Rima Merriman notes that Palestinians are refusing to read the lines Israel has written for them in a nightmarish script. Read more about The Palestinian 'Great Escape'
“As the so-called ‘disengagement’ from Gaza has come to an end and the Israeli government turns its hawkish eye towards consolidation in the West Bank, the lines of debate over the motives and value of the pull-out have been drawn. But whatever the future may hold, the redeployment has contributed to a pernicious vein of thinking about the colonial settlers and their relation both to the Israeli state and to Zionism itself.” Issa Mikel is a Palestinian-American lawyer currently freelance writing and engaging in non-profit work in Palestine. Read more about Disengaging from Zionism
The recent withdrawal of Jewish settlers from Gaza was a momentous event in history. For the first time, an Israeli government insisted that Jews evacuate territory which it encouraged them to populate in the first place. So why has Sharon just risked alienating one of the strongest, most well-organised elements in Israeli society? Katharine von Schubert finds herein the paradox. The dream of settlement and expansion, which in many ways defined Zionist Israel, could not be sustained there. Israel could not have hung on to Gaza for ever. It could not afford to either militarily, financially or strategically. Yet, the moral reasons for getting out, which have not featured large in Sharon’s reasoning, speak the loudest to her and many other observers. Read more about Gaza withdrawal: momentous but unlikely to lead to peace
There are striking similarities between Israel’s departure from southern Lebanon in May 2000 and the events in Gaza over the past two weeks. This is no surprise, as events in the Arab-Israeli conflict have been seemingly moving in circles for years, writes EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah. The peace process industry of EU, American and UN officials, donor agencies, government-funded think tanks and NGOs, supported by the media, have created euphoria and false optimism following the passing away of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last November, which has done much to pollute the political climate. With no lessons learned, the same forces are doing it again in the name of Gaza “disengagement.” Read more about Rushing after a mirage
In 2002, Moshe Ya’alon, then Israel’s army chief of staff, said that “the Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.” “I wonder if Ya’alon would make the same statement today after the completion of Gaza settlers evacuation?” asks EI contributor Ghada Ageel who was born and lives in Gaza’s Khan Yunis refugee camp. Whether right or wrong, says Ageel, whether Ya’alon likes it or not, today most Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and in the diaspora, young or old, women and men do feel in the deepest recesses of their hearts that they are the victors. Read more about The "disengagement" as seen from Gaza
Many Palestinians are expressing delight over the pull-out of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip. But as human rights lawyer Raji Sourani argues, the celebrations maybe premature. The streets of Gaza are full of flags, hats and t-shirts celebrating the end of occupation, the liberation of Palestine. There are nightly street celebrations by the political factions each of them claiming they were the ones responsible for the Israeli ‘withdrawal’. In the media speeches are made and songs are played all contributing to this euphoric atmosphere. As I walk around the dusty Gaza streets and watch these often colourful celebrations I understand that after 38 years (of occupation) people are looking for somewhere to place their hopes. The redeployment of the Israeli military to Gaza’s borders and the cementing of control of the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem should not be it. Read more about On the streets of Gaza
A teenage soldier in Tapuah, a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, shot to death four Palestinian citizens of Israel and injured several others last Thursday on a bus in Shafa’amr, a quiet Arab town in the north of Israel where I work. Israel’s Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, denounced the shootings as an act of “terrorism” designed to “harm the fabric of relations among all Israeli citizens”, and threaten Israel’s “stability as a democracy”. For Palestinians living in Israel, however, his words were of little comfort. Read more about Slicing off Gaza is just a diplomatic nose job
The Israeli government is planning to leave the Gaza Strip. Its refusal to coordinate the pullout with the Palestinians has left the Palestinian leadership confused and helpless. Instead of watching helplessly and waiting for Israel to grant it permission to do this or that, why doesn’t the leadership seize the initiative and declare that if the settlers want to remain in Gaza and live in the territory as Palestinian citizens or even with dual Israeli-Palestinian citizenship, they are welcome to do so. By accepting the Jewish settlers of Gaza as equal citizens, the Palestinians can prove to themselves, to the Israelis, and to the world that they can treat their people as equal citizens before the law regardless of religion and ethnicity, something Israel has failed to do since its establishment. Read more about Seizing the initiative
