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Removal of Zionist Settlers From
Gaza – Theater in the Sands
by Gerry Foley /
September 2005 issue of Socialist Action
In mid-August, the Israeli government deployed its soldiers to
remove all the Zionist settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the West
Bank. The operation
was played up in the Israeli press and the Western big press as a
tragedy for the Jews.
For example, on Aug. 15, Haaretz, the main liberal Israeli daily,
showed a picture of soldiers and religious settlers embracing and weeping
over the
dismantling of a synagogue in Gaza. "Human interest"
stories abounded about the sorrow of Jewish families forced to abandon
their homes and their dreams.
Right-wing Jewish settlers denounced their removal as comparable to
the Nazi’s forced evacuations of Jews. Excited rightist youths poured into
the settlements to try to block the Israeli army.
It was an astonishing display over a very limited disengagement of
Zionist settlement from stolen Palestinian lands. It concerned 8000
Zionists living
in fortified enclaves among 1.4 million Palestinians from whom they
had forcibly taken most of the available water and arable land in the
territory.
The 8000 Zionist settlers in the Gaza were offered compensation
ranging from $150,000 to $400,000. But the 3200 Palestinian workers who had
toiled for the settlers for years at one third of the Israeli minimum wage
got no compensation, although their underpaid labor undoubtedly produced a
large part of the value of the settlers’ property. Another 700 foreign
workers from outside the Middle East were paid very low wages, although
somewhat higher than the Palestinians, and got no compensation.
Thus, in all, a number of non-Jewish workers equivalent to half that
of the settlers lost their jobs without compensation. For them, the Zionist
rulers had no sympathy. That indicates their values but it also indicates
the economically parasitical nature of the settlements.
Israel "security" operations in the Gaza Strip since the
beginning of the Intifada have made at least 90,000 Palestinians homeless,
10 times the number of
Zionist settlers displaced from their homes. These people got no
compensation.
Jonathan Steele, writing in the British Guardian of Aug. 19, pointed
out that "in Rafah alone, according to figures from the UN relief
agency UNRWA, the rate
of house demolitions rose from 15 per month in 2002 to 77 per month between
January and October 2004. Parts of Rafah now resemble areas of Kabul or
Grozny. Facing Israeli army watchtowers and the concrete wall that runs
close to the Gaza Strip's boundary, rows of rubble and ruined homes stretch
for hundreds of yards."
The dislocation of Palestinians was carried out with a brutality out
of all proportion to the force used against the settlers. For example, on
Aug. 17,
Pacifica Radio’s "Democracy Now" interviewed a Palestinian
who had watched an Israeli bulldozer crush Rachel Corrie, the martyred
American protester who stood up against the destruction of Palestinian
homes. Samah Nasrallah (translated by her husband, Khaled Nasrallah)
stated: "At that time, my brother called us to come to the garden as
the tank and bulldozer have
been coming to our home. At that time, Rachel has been standing in
between our home and the tank, which has been around 200 meter far and over
land, and she was holding a microphone, talking, with an orange vest.
"She was talking to the tank driver, telling him, ‘Stop, stop.
There's children inside the home.’ At that time, the driver of the
bulldozer didn't stop and to continue moving toward her."
Now the Palestinian Authority proposes to build apartment buildings
on the territory formerly occupied by the Zionist settlers, in order to
house Palestinians whose homes were destroyed by the Israel army.
Many of the opponents of the withdrawal from Gaza denounced it
because they said that Israel had gotten no treaty from the Palestinians.
But this overlooks the fact that the Oslo treaties of 1993 supposedly
recognized Palestinian sovereignty in the territories Israel conquered in
1967. Of course, these treaties were never fully implemented by Israel, but
still no new treaty was necessary.
Moreover, the Zionist rulers have gotten guarantees from both the
Palestinian Authority and Egypt that they will prevent operations against
Israel by Palestinian militants. Egypt has agreed to station 700 troops on
the border to prevent the movement of fighters and weapons into the Strip.
In that regard,
it is taking over a job formerly done by the Israeli army.
To be sure, given the pressure of Arab nationalist feeling on them,
it is dubious how effectively the Palestinian Authority forces and the
Egyptians can suppress the Palestinian fighters who want to attack Israel.
But the ability of the Israeli army to combat any such attacks and
retaliate against them will not
be weakened but rather strengthened by the withdrawal of the Zionist
settlements. It will gain maneuverability.
The Zionist authorities have made it clear that they will not
hesitate to send their army back into the Gaza Strip any time they consider
it necessary to
"combat terrorism." So, Gaza may well remain a shooting
gallery.
The Palestinian population of Gaza, of course, hopes that the
withdrawal of the Zionist settlements will remove the pressure of the
Israeli military on them. That
explains the signs of popular rejoicing reported in the major press.
However, the Arab media have made it clear that the Palestinians expect
little real benefit from the withdrawal of the settlers.
The website of the Arab nationalist TV channel Al-Jazeera noted Aug.
16: "Israel has indicated it will retain control of Gaza's skies and
territorial
waters, which would effectively prevent any real transformation to
genuine independence.
"‘How could the Gaza Strip possibly be independent as long as
Israel remains in control of our skies, waters, borders, and economy?’ Gaza
lawyer Raji al-Sourani told journalists in Gaza this week at a meeting with
civic leaders during which the post-withdrawal era was discussed."
Al-Jazeera quoted Palestinian militants as saying that the
withdrawal of the settlers was a victory for the Palestinian struggle.
Certainly, if it were not for
the resistance, the Zionists would never had carried out this
retreat. However, it is a dubious victory. It is notable that an Al-Jazeera
poll of its viewers
showed that only 16 percent thought that the withdrawal was a
victory, whereas nearly half thought it was a "maneuver."
The hard core of the Zionist settlers is inspired by fundamentalist
religious notions that they are following a Divine command to occupy the
entire land
of Palestine and that its non-Jewish inhabitants are an inferior
breed who have no rights that need be respected. But that does necessarily
mean that their
leaders have no concept of political tactics. They waged a campaign
against the withdrawal that failed.
Polls show that a solid majority of the Israeli public support the
Gaza withdrawal. The tactic of the mainstream Zionist politicians now is
apparently to make the withdrawal look so traumatic that it can serve as an
argument against further concessions to the Palestinians, such as
withdrawing settlers from parts of the West Bank. This hypocritical
pretence must be exposed.
In fact, since the proposal for the Gaza withdrawal was first
announced last year, thousands of new houses for Israeli settlers have been
built in the West Bank. And
construction continues on the infamous "apartheid" wall—which
isolates West Bank Palestinian communities and separates the people from
their fields, places of employment, medical clinics, and family
members.
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