Unilateral Delay Tactic

Yousef Munayyer, AAF writer

 Picture a person holding small but highly concentrated bottle of nitro glycerin. It becomes a burden to hold. Yet instead of carefully handing it over to someone else the bottle is dropped causing a large, deadly explosion. This is precisely what Israel is about to do with the Gaza Strip.

Unilateral disengagement means Israel is about to drop the bottle, not hand it over. Israel knows better than any other actor that the Palestinian Authority does not control Gaza. Arguably the Palestinian Authority’s mandate is no longer sufficient even in the West Bank. Yet Israel is about to leave Gaza and hold the PA responsible for a task they know it can not handle.

As the world is subjected to the sad stories over evacuation and shattered settler’s dreams, no one is talking about the consequences. The stark reality will be evident shortly after the pull out is complete. While the debate at the surface now is about whether the pull out is good or bad there is little being said about the motives or aftermath.

To those unacquainted with the conflict the immediate interpretation of the pull out maybe a generous act of good faith however this is not the reality. One has to ask, why would Israel decide to hand politically unstable territory over to a politically weak governing body particularly when they know the consequences can jeopardize their own security and the safety of their population? Though it’s a seemingly irrational measure it has to be placed into the context of Israel’s other main objectives, extending its control over the West Bank, expanding illegal settlement blocks, and completing the separation wall.

With all this in perspective the unilateral withdrawal suddenly makes clear yet disturbing sense. The withdrawal is not an end to occupation of Palestinian land. For now it seems to be a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip but how long will that last? How long will it be before Israel re-enters Gaza, this time free of settlers and settlements, with one objective; destroying Hamas. At that point the Palestinian Authority will be forced to take a position. Forced to choose between Hamas and Israel the Palestinian Authority will no longer be able to walk the delicate tight rope it has managed to use up till now. Perhaps Israel will finally get the Palestinian civil war it has been working for since it began factionalizing the Palestine Liberation Organization by encouraging the creation of Islamic groups in the 1980s.

Politically Israel has made a very strategic decision and the Palestinian Authority has no leverage with which to counter it. They can only sit back and watch while trying to claim credit for the withdrawal in an attempt to garner support from a population which has long since devoted themselves to religious parties over these dangerous and destitute years. In terms of the peace process this pull out provides no hope unless it is the first in several concessions Israel will make. Though Israel has now taken the step of making it illegal for settler to live in Gaza, international law has held that to be illegal for decades.

It must be made clear that the withdrawal from Gaza is not the end of the occupation. The Palestinians in the West Bank still suffer from the daily effects of the occupation. Illegal settlements continue to expand slicing Palestinian land into ungovernable Bantustans. The segregation wall continues to be built impeding all movement, concentrating Palestinians, and suffocating economy even at the smallest levels.

Gaza, even free of Israeli military, is transformed from a series of small prisons into a larger one. With 1.5 million people in the most densely populated and confined spot in the world any optimism generated by the withdrawal will yield to pessimism shortly afterwards as economic conditions worsen.

This, coupled with tensions between the PA and Islamic groups, which will undoubtedly be catalyzed and aggravated by Israel, highlights the grave and volatile future which awaits us. The overdramatic settlers and leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu will soon be calm as they will see the will provide Israel with a sufficient delay in the peace process during which the can cement there hold on the West Bank leaving the possibility of a withdrawal from the larger of the two Palestinian territories virtually impossible.