16 - 22 May 2002
Issue No.586
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 16 - 22 May 2002 Issue No.586 |
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Why Gaza?
The Palestinian Authority has agreed to hand over five Palestinians Israel accuses of having assassinated Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi's to American and British officials, with no guarantee that these officials will not turn them over to Israel. It also agreed to exile 13 Palestinians who had sought refuge in the Church of the Nativity to European Union countries and to deport 26 to the Gaza Strip. Such concessions are frustrating, but of all the questions they raise the one relating to the Gaza Strip is the most significant. Will Gaza be separated from the West Bank? Has it turned into a place of exile? And how will the West Bank fare in the midst of these developments?
Imprisoned freedom fighters have been transported to Jericho, second-rate exiles to Gaza. Israelis have often suggested that Gaza alone should constitute the Palestinian state. If the Jewish prophets cursed Jericho, so present-day Israelis curse Gaza -- the source of much resistance. Problematic in terms of its strategic, economic and social position, Gaza poses a security dilemma. It may be that Israel is planning on compromising the Palestinians into accepting Gaza as their state.
In which case one of three scenarios will be awaiting the West Bank. Either it will be functionally divided between Jordan and Israel; incorporated into the Gaza state (becoming an isolated and divided part of the future country), or else turned into a helpless, separate entity managed by a Palestinian officer chosen by Israel.
* This week's Soapbox speaker is a Cairo-based Palestinian political activist.
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