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Intro:
During the period of August 15-17 2005, the Israeli government under Sharon began implementing what was called "The Gaza Disengagement Plan". The Gaza Disengagement was the evacuation of all the illegal Israeli settlers residing in the Gaza Strip, and also those living in four settlements in the West Bank.
Israel's withdrawal from Gaza was depicted as a momentous event. The Israeli government proudly declared that they were committing a great sacrifice, a sacrifice that would bring the state of Israel closer towards a direction of peace.
Today we will be looking at the events that have taken place in the year since the historic withdrawal with Gaza journalist and feature history writer and works for the state information center in the gaza strip. With the arrival of the one year anniversary of the Gaza disengagement, it is clear that very little has changed.
Intro:
During the period of August 15-17 2005, the Israeli government under Sharon began implementing what was called "The Gaza Disengagement Plan". The Gaza Disengagement was the evacuation of all the illegal Israeli settlers residing in the Gaza Strip, and also those living in four settlements in the West Bank.
Israel's withdrawal from Gaza was depicted as a momentous event. The Israeli government proudly declared that they were committing a great sacrifice, a sacrifice that would bring the state of Israel closer towards a direction of peace.
Today we will be looking at the events that have taken place in the year since the historic withdrawal with Gaza journalist and feature history writer and works for the state information center in the gaza strip. With the arrival of the one year anniversary of the Gaza disengagement, it is clear that very little has changed.
1) What was the general feeling of the Gazan population leading up to the disengagement? Were people optimistic, or were they skeptical from the beginning?
2nd Part:
The international media participated in the process of over dramatizing the withdrawal by painting the visual picture of this great sacrifice. They ate up images of devastated settler's frantically wailing holding on to their homes with life and limb while being forcibly evicted. News headlines and video montages focused on the plight of the settlers, their cries of wanting to remain in their homes, their acts of defiance, and even the cries of soldiers who were fighting the woes within their consciousness, caught in a battle of being good soldiers who are just doing their jobs whom are doing what they thought was morally wrong, displacing other Jews from their homes, as they do not have any problems with displacing Palestinians as they do it so often.
Hidden from these dramatic displays was the fact that all the people who were not just civilians, being evicted were living in the region illegally, in contravention to international law, and that there leaving was not a sacrifice but a requirement under international law.
These settlers are facts on the grounds that are participating in a process of discrimination, oppression and systematic ethnic cleansing. They are tools of the government, and are part and parcel to the states apartheid apparatus. A group of people who or awarded more rights than another group of people on the basis of ethnicity. A group of people whose living habits in the occupied territories were designed to have Jewish only settlements and bypass roads which in turn disconnects Palestinian villages and towns from one another while turning them into Bantustans.
The most important fact that remained silenced by mainstream media was that Israel would still control the borders, the air space, and reserved the right to invade.
Although Israel ended its physical presence on the ground, it continued to control the region. On September 25, only weeks after the so-called historic withdrawal, Israel lead Aerial attacks against the Gaza Strip, hitting bridges, knocking out power, and killing many civilians. Since then, the air strikes and sonic boom attacks on Gaza are constant.
Also, Israel closed Karni and other crossings for prolonged periods, resulting in dire shortages of food and medicine, and preventing Palestinian workers and those in need of medical treatment from crossing into Israel. External closures, were imposed on the population for over half of December 2005, and all of April and May 2006.5 During the month of April, the Israeli authorities launched 3,005 artillery shells into Gaza, and another 954 in May.
According to Professor John Dugard, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), "[t]he withdrawal of Jewish
settlers from Gaza will result in the decolonization of Palestinian territory but not result in the end of occupation."4
2) Can you briefly discuss the limitations of the disengagement which allowed Israel to maintain control over the region under the cover of a withdrawal? Also, under international law, the Gaza Strip is still under military occupation despite a non-physical presence. Can you discuss Israel's obligations as the occupying power under international law?
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After the Disengagement, Israel began using a new tactic, the launching of sound deafening sonic booms over Gaza, something that they never did when the settlers where present.
These attacks against Gaza civilians are launched through the use of air force jets that create dozens of sonic booms by breaking the sound barrier at low altitude, sending shockwaves across the region, often at night.
Palestinians describe the sound to be like an earthquake or a huge bomb. They effect of the sonic boom is like being hit by a wall of air that is painful on the ears and sometimes cause nose bleeds.
These sonic booms cause widespread fear, heart problems, induce miscarriages and have increased the level to 40% and traumatize children symptoms such as anxiety attacks, bedwetting, muscle spasms, temporary loss of hearing and breathing difficulties.
Human rights agencies and the UN have urged Israel to stop, as it is a form of severe collective punishment that is traumatizing children. Palestinian human rights agencies petitioned the Israeli high court to end the sonic booms and in January 2006, the Israeli High Court of Justice Refused to Issue an Injunction to Stop Sonic Booms Over Gaza.
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Following the Palestinian Legislative Elections that took place on 26 of January 2006, in , which the Palestinian people democratically elected Hamas, Israel, the us, Canada and the eu have with held aid and have imposed sanctions and collective punishment on the Palestinian population for voting for what they consider a terrorist organization.
As a result, humanitarian organizations are claiming that Gaza is on the brink of a humanitarian and health catastrophe.
Furthermore, because the Israeli government was not able to force hamas out of office with the sanctions or by using a strategy an official openly referred to as "putting Palestinians on a diet", the Israeli authorities have resulted to physically kidnapping over a third of the members of parliament.
5) Many international parties decided to stop their financial aid to the Palestinian people as a result of their choice to democratically elect hamas. Can you discuss how the sanctions have detrimentally affected the Palestinians in Gaza? Also, can you discuss israels recent campaign of arresting members of the PLC as an attempt to destroy the Palestinian political process?
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A month before the disengagement, Ilan Pappe, Uri Davis and Tamar Yaron, 3 Israeli academics issued a warning called "After the Disengagement" in which they appealed to the international community to be prepared for possible Israeli war crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza, war crimes that they believed were to occur after the withdrawal.
According to the warning, the academics believed that one unstated motive for the withdrawal of the settlers was to " keep them out of harm's way when the Israeli government and military possibly trigger an intensified mass attack on the approximately one and a half million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip"
They continued by stating that they think the "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz are considering to utilize provocation for vicious attacks in the near future: a possible combination of intensified state terror and mass killing.
One year has passed since the disengagement. To date, there have been no changes to the situation in gaza, in fact, things have only gotten dramatically worse.
On June 27, 2006, Israel launched Operation Summer Rain, a massive military invasion of gaza, the first since September 2005. According to the Prime Minister, the aim of the campaign was to free the kidnapped Israeli soldier.
The Palestinian resistance faction responsible stated that they would release the soldier in return for the release of all Palestinian women and children political prisoners currently being held in Israeli jails.
Instead, Israel refused to negotiate but according to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert the goal was "not to mete out punishment but rather to apply pressure so that the abducted soldier will be freed. We want to create a new equation — freeing the abducted soldier in return for lessening the pressure on the Palestinians." Israeli choose military violence instead of diplomatic negoations, and ironically the invasion came only days after the Palestinian factions of the National Dialogue agreed on the Prisoners Document in which Palestinian factions would recognize Israel in return for a two state peace solution based on international law and un resolution 242.
According to b'tselem, the Israeli human rights group, In July, the Israeli military killed 163 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, 78 of whom (48 percent) were not taking part in the hostilities when they were killed. Thirty-six of the fatalities were minors, and 20 were women.
Also, Households are receiving as little as 6 - 8 hours of electricity per day. Most families in the urban areas have only 2 -3 hours of running water, as the water network remains unsynchronised with the electrical supply.
Damages caused to Palestinian infrastructure by IDF incursions, shelling and rocket attacks are approximately USD 15.5.million.
Here is a list of NOTABLE ISRAELI VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS leading up to operation summer rain, documented and sourced by Palestinian center for human rights and electronic Intifada.
From June 1-7, Israeli mock air raids over Gaza were carried out to terrorize the population, firing missiles at uninhabited areas, and flying low over densely populated civilian areas.
Israeli gunboats shot at Gaza's coast and wounded 2 Palestinian children playing on the beach (1 June)
Israeli border positions fired artillery shells at Jabalya town, injuring two Palestinian children inside their homes, and at Um al-Nasser village, injuring a 48-year-old Palestinian man (3 June)
An Israeli missile attack on a car carrying Palestinian resistance fighters kills two civilians (5 June)
Israel fired artillery shells at 3 Palestinian attempting to enter Israel through the fence, killing two and injuring the third. Shrapnel killed a member of the Palestinian police and wounded another, together with 4 civilians, including a 5-year-old and 17-year-old children, and a 50-year-old man (7 June).
Israel's shelled people enjoying their weekend on Gaza's beach, killing 8 Palestinian civilians including 7 members of the same family, and injuring a further 32 civilians including 13 children (9 June)
Three Palestinian civilians were killed when Israel fired a missile at a car near Jabalya (9 June)
An Israeli missile attack on a van driven by Palestinian resistances killed eleven Palestinians including 2 children and 2 paramedics, and injured 30 Palestinians including a number of children (13 June)
Israel opened fire at a funeral procession east of Jabalya, wounding three 15-year-old children following the procession (13 June)
An Israeli missile attack on Palestinian resistance missed its target and instead killed 3 children and wounded 13 civilians, including 7 children, (20 June))
An Israeli missile attack that missed its target hit a family home and killed a Palestinian brother and his pregnant sister. The missile injured 11 others. Four civilians, including a 10-year-old child, were injured near the home. (21 June
And lastly, perhaps one of the least covered events during that time period, Israeli kidnapped 2 palestinians just south of rafah on june 24.
With only one year after the disengagement, the Israeli military has physically reentered gaza, and remains there till today, even though any word of the kidnapped soldier has disappeared.
6) On June 28, Israel launched operation summer rain. Almost two months after the operation, Israel has re-asserted its military presence in Gaza, and convienitly, all word of the missing soldier has vanished. Can you discuss the present situation in Gaza following the offensive? What do you think were the real motivations behind this offensive? Do you think that Israeli military presence will remain in gaza permanently
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Outro:
Immediately following the disengagement, the Israeli public relations stage was set. The logic was, we pulled out our own civilians from their homes to show our commitment and desire to a peaceful solution, now its time for the Palestinians to show their desire for peace. Presently, Ultra- Right Zionist settler groups in Israel are claiming that the abduction of the soldier in Gaza and the capture of those in Lebanon, which lead to the present war in Lebanon, is a result of the disengagement, and they argue that this should be an example to not give away any occupied territory in the future.
But as far as the Israeli disengagement plan goes, Sharon's real motives were made clear in a policy speech he delivered on June 30, 2005, Sharon, while talking to settlers opposing the disengagement plan stated that the move is another attempt to win the demographic war.
"We concluded that we are going to leave Gaza, where there is no chance of establishing a Jewish majority," he said in Cesaria.. "It is clear to everyone that Gaza will never be part of Israel in any final agreement. At the same time, we are turning our resources to the most important areas, which we need to safeguard for our existence: the Galilee, the Negev, Greater Jerusalem, the settlement blocs, and security areas."
7) looking back at the disengagement, has anything really changed since the pull out? What do you think the motivations were for the disengagement, and what do you think will come in the future?
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Conclusion
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With a years passing of the gaza disengagement, it is clear that nothing has changed in the region which remains legally occupied by Israel. After many events, it is clear that Israel aims were not peace and nor were they committing a great sacrifice.
With the construction of new Israeli settlements in the illegally occupied west bank, east Jerusalem during the very time of the actual withdrawal, it is clear that the disengagement was another Israeli effort to tighten the hold over the occupied region.
Also, with statements by Sharon backed with increased development in the Galilee and Negev desert, it is obvious that the disengagement is in fact an attempt to solve the demographic problem, or in other words, to further dilute the Palestinian presence in Israel and to maintain a jewish majority.
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