Gaza Is Not Egypt
Despite its 2005 disengagement from Gaza, Israel still controls the Strip's land, naval and aerial borders, This means it remains responsible for the economic and humanitarian situation of its residents, writes Akiva Eldar.
The last round of violence between Israel and Hamas, which ended with yet another cease-fire, took place on a backdrop of stormy internal discussions in Israel regarding a permanent solution to the conflict with the Palestinian side. Israeli and Palestinian politicians and thinkers who supported the two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders have concluded that the Oslo process has reached the end of its usefulness and that other solutions must be found. Prominent leftists and the liberal right propose the application of Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and the transformation of Israel from a Jewish state to a bi-national one.
In the wake of the 2010 Gaza Marmara flotilla affair, Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn wrote that Israel must exploit the crisis in order to complete the disengagement from the Gaza Strip and "leave Hamastan to its own devices." According to Ben's plan, Israel should inform the international community that it divests itself of all responsibility for the Gaza residents and their welfare, hermetically seal the border crossings between Israel and the Strip and ensure that Gaza receives supplies and medical services via the Egyptian border.
The new leader of the extreme right, Naftali Bennett, wrote in his political program that "Gaza is gradually becoming annexed to Egypt. That is already happening. Let us not take responsibility for it." According to his plan, more than two million Palestinians living in Areas A and B would enjoy autonomy — analogous to the status of the bantustans (black homelands) in South Africa. Meanwhile, Area C — stretching over 60% of the West Bank and populated by approximately 100,000 Palestinians — would be annexed to Israel.
When Israel dismantled the settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005, and unilaterally removed the last of its soldiers from the territory, it severed Gaza and its residents from the West Bank as well, and from the rest of the Palestinian communities. Ever since the disengagement, Israel has not allowed the exportation of merchandise from Gaza to the West Bank and restricts the movement of human beings to strictly defined humanitarian cases only.
