Israel seeks control of Gaza borders post-pullout
AFP
Date: 08-26-05
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel wants to control the borders of the Gaza Strip even after its historic pullout, citing fears that the Palestinian territory could turn into a bastion of militancy awash with weapons.
The Palestinians quickly condemned any such plan, insisting Israel can only end its 38-year occupation of Gaza by ceding all control over the impoverished strip of land, including its borders, air space and territorial waters.
Although the cabinet is set to approve the deployment of 750 Egyptian guards along the Gaza border to clamp down on smuggling and allow all Israeli soldiers to leave, officials still want to rubber-stamp goods coming into the territory.
A ministerial commission has recommended that Israel maintain security control of the border despite the Egyptian deployment.
"We know very well that the Gaza Strip has to be open to the outside world, but are not going to allow it to be transformed into a terrorist arsenal," said an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
"Arms could be brought in if Israel gives up all control," said the source.
Consequently, Israel wants to transfer the terminal in the Gaza-Egypt town of Rafah further south, where the Egyptian, Gazan and Israeli borders meet.
Shifting the terminal to the kibbutz of Kerem Shalom would allow Israel to continue to control the passage of goods entering Gaza, conduct security checks and exercise customs control over products intended for sale in Israel.
The Palestinian Authority believes that moving the border terminal will merely perpetuate Israel's occupation of Gaza when all soldiers are finally recalled from the territory after a near four-decade occupation.
"We reject this statement completely. It is impossible to accept that the Rafah border will still be under Israeli control," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
Although world leaders hope Israel's departure from Gaza could revive the moribund Middle East peace process, the immediate aftermath of the eviction of all Jewish settlers has been marked by fresh bloodshed.
In a mark of how desperately hardline settlers and their far-right supporters opposed the pullout, a 54-year-old woman died Friday from massive burns sustained when she set fire to herself as a protest nine days ago.
An Israeli border policeman was stabbed and wounded by a Palestinian near a disputed religious site venerated by both Jews and Muslims in Hebron, one day after Israeli troops shot dead five militants in the northern West Bank.
Palestinians threw stones at an off-duty army officer in the West Bank, lightly injuring him in the head, and stole his M16 rifle.
In southern Gaza, militants detonated an explosive device as an army force was patrolling in the area, damaging a security fence.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, loosely affiliated to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, said the attack was to avenge the killing of the five militants on Wednesday.
Thousands of Hamas supporters rallied in northern Gaza to celebrate "the victory of the resistance" after the eviction of all Jewish settlers from the territory with masked gunmen brandishing M16s and anti-tank missiles.
Washington has urged both Israelis and Palestinians to exercise restraint and not squander the momentum created by the Gaza pullout.
"We do believe that this is an historic opportunity to make real progress" towards peace," said White House spokesman Trent Duffy.
The international community wants both sides to revive the internationally drafted roadmap, paving the way for the creation of a Palestinian state.
The blueprint obliges Israel to freeze all settlement activity but officials have announced plans for expanding Maale Adumim, the largest West Bank enclave.
More than 12,000 Israelis have moved into West Bank settlements over the last year, official figures showed Friday, many more than the 8,000 settlers uprooted under Sharon's disengagement plan.
The new figures, published by both the interior ministry and settlement watchdog Peace Now, mean that there are now more than 250,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
The Maariv daily meanwhile reported that settler leaders are planning to lobby the government to move the vast separation barrier further east, cutting deeper into Palestinian territory.
Source
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