Ulterior motives

Egypt has yet to make up its mind on Israel's plan to dig a trench along the Gaza-Egypt border, reports Reem Nafie

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Although talk of Israel digging a trench along the Gaza-Egypt border has been in the air for nearly a month, when the Israeli Defence Ministry issued a tender for the trench on 17 June, the idea began to assume the shape of a real plan.

The trench idea was born towards the end of May, following Israel's "Operation Rainbow" raid on the Palestinian city of Rafah. The raid -- which left thousands of Palestinians homeless -- was launched after Israel claimed that tunnels between the Palestinian and Egyptian cities of Rafah were being used to smuggle weapons to the Palestinian resistance. The Israeli Occuaption Forces (IOF) reported that 80 tunnels were found and destroyed.

To "overcome the serious threat of smuggling through tunnels", the IOF suggested the digging of a trench in the Palestinian city of Rafah. According to international law, any such activity on the Gaza-Egypt border requires the consent of both Egypt and Israel.

The 17 June tender was meant, said the IOF, to both "back the seriousness of the plans to dig the trench", and to visualise the costs and practical details involved in the project. According to the tender, the trench would be four kilometres long, 15-25 metres deep and 100- 120 metres wide. It would be dug along the Philadelphia route -- a security corridor adjacent to the residential area in Palestinian Rafah.

While its sides would be coated with cement, the bottom of the trench would be left as is, and then filled with water in order to flood any possible tunnelling by smugglers. The IOF said sea water could not be used because of its potentially damaging effects on both the area's ecology and underground resources.

The trench is meant to make smuggling practically impossible. The detection of tunnels would also be made easier via sensors installed in the trench itself. It would be built before the expected withdrawal from Gaza by the end of 2005.

Egyptian analysts have not reacted kindly to either the trench itself, or to the fact that Israel announced the tender without consulting with Egypt first. According to Cairo University international law professor Salah Amer, Israel "has no right to dig a trench or even issue a tender -- which obviously sends out a message that they are serious about their plans -- unless Egypt agrees to such a plan". Amer said that by doing so, Israel had defied international law. The Gaza- Egypt border has had a "definite structure since 1906", he said, and altering it would lead to "the deterioration of assets that are present in the area".

Amer was referring to the hundreds of houses that would have to be destroyed in the process of digging such a trench. Israeli officials have said that in order to ensure the ditch is dug at an appropriate width, houses near the border in the Palestinian city of Rafah would have to be demolished.

Israeli Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz, meanwhile, suggested that it would be better if fewer houses were destroyed and their residents given full compensation.

On Sunday, Israel said it was not about to start digging the trench without Egypt's consent. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said, "no final decision had been made," telling the Israeli cabinet that, "no ground would be broken along the tinderbox 'Philadelphia Corridor' until Israel consulted with Egypt."

Egyptian commentators were sceptical; the Wafd Party's mouthpiece Al-Wafd said Israel had "saved Egyptian-Israeli relations by pretending to reconsider what they already planned to do". The paper said Israel had "ulterior motives" aimed at "isolating Palestinians in Gaza from their close ally Egypt".

Samir Ghattas, director of the Makdis Centre for Political Studies in Gaza, said Israel aimed to transform Gaza into "one big prison". Ghattas linked the trench to the "barrier Israel is constructing in the West Bank with the declared aim of stopping suicide bombers". He explained that Israel wanted to make sure that if they did pullout from Gaza by 2005, "Gaza would be a remote island that no one can get to."

Ghattas also linked Israel's initiative to dig a trench -- without Egypt's consent -- with Israel's Gaza pullout plan. He said the "trench issue will be used as a form of pressuring Egypt"; if Egypt refuses Israel's trench proposal, Israel could refuse to pull out of Gaza, "using security issues as an excuse".

An issue that remains vague is the security plan that would accompany the proposed trench. In Cairo's first official stance, Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher told reporters on Tuesday that "if we are assured that there will be a complete [Israeli] pullout from Gaza, it is not logical to talk about a trench or any other arrangements." The assumption would be that any trench would also include the deployment of Israeli security personnel to man it. In this regard, Maher made clear that Egypt "does not want any Israeli presence on the borders" with Gaza.

Amer predicted that Egyptian officials would not agree to the trench plan because of the "Palestinian houses that will be demolished in the process".

Ghattas, however, said Egypt would agree, if only to "brush off the Israeli accusations regarding tunnels across the border". He said Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman met with Israeli officials to discuss the Gaza pullout plan on the same day the trench tender was announced. "If Egypt was not ready to agree on the trench," Ghattas said, "Suleiman would have voiced his concerns."

The issue may also come up at today's Quartet meeting in Taba.