Is it good for the Palestinians?

Gaza pullout

Israel is “running away,” said Talal Awkal in Ramallah, West Bank’s Al-Ayyam. The evacuation of Jewish settlements in Gaza this week is an admission that Zionism is finished. Ever since the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel occupied the strip of land on the border with Egypt, Israelis have been trying to make Gaza theirs. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was once the greatest advocate of Jewish settlements there, saying it would create “facts on the ground” that would lead to incorporation into Israel. Now it is he who must admit that Gaza will never belong to Israel. The pullout of troops and settlers “is the beginning of disintegration of the Zionist project.”

“Let us be jubilant,” said Hafith al-Barghuthi in Ramallah’s Al-Hayat al-Jadidah. Now that Gaza is freed, we can kneel and offer prayers of gratitude. We remember, too, the martyrs who died so that this day would come. All “the blood that was shed” was not in vain. And this is just the beginning, said Adli Sadiq, also in Al-Hayat al-Jadidah. The “snakes” who took our land 38 years ago will be driven from every corner. The Palestinians’ implacable will convinced the occupiers “that they cannot exist on our land.” We defeated them in Gaza; we will defeat them in the West Bank.

Don’t kid yourselves, said Sahar Baasiri in Lebanon’s An-Nahar. The pullout was in Israel’s self-interest. Gaza was always “a demographic time bomb.” A few thousand Jews were no match for 1.5 million Palestinians. Without Gaza, Israel and the West Bank are 60 percent Jewish. That means Israel has bought another two decades or so before its Arab residents outnumber the Jews. But the withdrawal doesn’t mean Israel has any intention of leaving the West Bank.

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Even Gaza is not free yet, said Hani al-Masri in Al-Ayyam. Even after the last Jewish settler is gone, Israel will still control the coast and the airspace. Some of the border crossings, too, will be in Israeli hands. How can we “claim that the occupation is ended” if Palestinians still “lack freedom of movement”? The Palestinian Authority has already ceded too much, said the pan-Arab Al-Quds Al-Arabi in an editorial. President Mahmoud Abbas allowed Israel to coordinate the entire pullout, thwarting the wishes of Gaza residents. “The problem with the current Palestinian Authority is that it doesn’t express the will of the people.” One is forced to wonder whether Abbas “really wants a free state” or is simply trying to stay in power.

Hasan al-Batal

Al-Ayyam