Few days ago, I received from my friend, Subhi Ghandour, the executive director of Al-Hewar Center in Vienna, VA an article written by Mohamed Sief Aldawla of Cairo, titled “Infrastructure for the Siege, Four Treaties and Thirty Nations”. The article is perhaps one of the best and most telling, I have seen so far on the background of the deliberate siege of Gaza, in which the Palestinian Authority played a key role.
According to the article, Rafah Crossing is but one of 5 crossings Israel used to continue its occupation of Gaza, and it is the only one between Gaza and Egypt. One would think such a crossing is under the jurisdiction of both Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, no so. The other crossing links Gaza with Egypt is the Karam Abu- Salem ( Kerem Shalom) which is under the direct control of Israel.
When Israel left Gaza, it made sure its occupation of Gaza continue and made sure that Gaza while devoid of Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers will always remain under Israeli control and continued siege. The strange thing is the number of parties and governments that are party to this entire siege and continued occupation. Who would believe that Israel managed to get the US, Egypt, Palestinian Authority, Israel and the EC with all of its 27 countries and governments are part of its continued occupation of Gaza? No one should be surprised about what Israel can and does.
There are a number of treaties and agreements that govern the crossings with Gaza and these are; Israel-PA Crossing Agreement signed November 15, 2005. Then there is the Israel-Egyptian Agreement signed on August 1st, 2005 commonly known as the Philadelphia Agreement. We also need to add to that the peace agreement signed between Israel and Egypt dated Mars 29, 1979; all of these treaties govern the siege of Gaza.
More interesting is the number of equipments and monitors Israel put in place and how Israel is allowed under these agreements to simply shut down all crossing as it wishes without any other party having a say so. Israel with virtual and absolute control over the crossings and equipment can decides if it wishes to simply prevent the European monitors from reaching the crossing, then every thing shut down. Israel can simply take over the monitoring system or disable them and again every thing shut down and no one and nothing is allowed in or out. In the last couple of years, these crossing only operated for few days, again confirming Israel deliberate siege of Gaza. Hamas or no Hamas.
Well, one can understand Israel’s plans and actions, since this is part of the Israeli psychic to inflict absolute harm on innocent people similar to the Nazi psychic which was to inflict absolute harm on Jews. The Nazis did not get away with it; the Zionists are getting away with it. What is so strange and perhaps not so strange is the willingness of the Palestinian Authority and Egypt to go along and sign such agreements knowing full well that Israel will make sure these crossing never operate and function in normal matters and that Israel will use “security” to lay siege of Gaza, making sure the people of Gaza continue to pay the price of continued occupation though there are no Israelis within the area of Gaza?
It seems no one from the Palestinian side or the Egyptian side learned anything from past dealings and negotiations with Israel. And it seems the Palestinians in particular never learned from Oslo where they gave Israel the absolute right to define “security” as it wish and without any controlling mechanism over this. As such and under Oslo, 500 security checkpoints are in place, creating absolute hell and misery for millions of Palestinians who have to go through these checkpoints on a daily basis to reach their work or farm or even to go to next village. Never mind the 3,000 VIP passes Arafat secured for his “boys” who are able to wiz through these checkpoints. Israel used “security” to control access to all areas under the “jurisdiction of the PA” controlling who can enter and who can exist and who can stay or reside. All issues that have to do with residency were and remain under the control of Israel as it has for the last 40 years. Israel used “security” to build settlements every where, to take over water resources, uproot hundred years old olive trees, destroy and demolish homes and buildings as it chooses and so on. Security is the sword and gun at the neck and heads of Palestinians 24/7.
Knowing all of this and knowing Israel and the way the Palestinian Authority behaved and did business with Israel one should not be surprised by the continued siege of Gaza. We do know Israel’s intentions and needs, what we do need to know is what is the interest and intentions of those from the Palestinians side who negotiated such deal with Israel? What were the interests of the likes of Mohamed Dahlan and his partners?
We do know Arafat awarded many of his thugs and underlings many monopolies and contracts making sure they give him absolute control over people as he promised Israel under Oslo, in exchange he gave them ways to get rich and make lots of money and gave his thugs ways to fleece the nation and people. And this continued as before.
The agreements governing the crossings is not different from the one negotiated under Oslo. It seems the Palestinians always appoint and select the most incompetent, ignorant and corrupt officials and leaders to negotiate with Israel and the final status negotiations will be no different from what we have seen in Oslo and what we have seen in Gaza.
The Palestinian Authority is a partner in the crime and siege of Gaza. While not deliberate, its incompetence made it all possible for Israel not only to lay the siege of Gaza but to continue with the Occupation of Gaza. The Palestinians leadership never learns from the past and is simply incapable of rising to the same levels of legal political and intellectual sophistication of Israel. That is why we are the losers for the last 100 years.
Share This
Loading ...
Few days ago, I received from my friend, Subhi Ghandour, the executive director of 
Loading ...
