OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, September 11, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) -
Israel's cabinet okayed Sunday, September 11, the withdrawal of
occupation troops from the Gaza Strip, while Palestinians contend that
the occupation will continue as long as Israel keeps control over the
crossings and airspace turning the territory into an open-air prison.
The
Israeli army was expected to begin completion of its pullout within
hours once ministers decide the fate of 25 synagogues, Reuters
reported.
A
senior Israeli political source told Reuters a majority of cabinet
ministers intended to vote against destroying the synagogues.
The
army pullout follows Israel's evacuation of 9,000 Jewish settlers from
Gaza and a corner of the West Bank, in its first dismantle of
settlements on Palestinian land occupied after the 1967 Middle East
War.
Meanwhile,
Egypt began Saturday, September 10, deploying 750 guards along the
border with Gaza in accordance with an agreement with Israel.
Egypt
will complete the deployment on Thursday, September 15, state-run Al-Ahram
daily reported Sunday quoting a high level source.
Egyptian
and Israeli generals signed an agreement on September 1 to allow the
deployment of the Egyptian border guards along the 12-km (7-mile)
Salahudin Corridor, which Israel calls Philadelphi Road.
Israel
has controlled the border since it captured the Sinai Peninsula from
Egypt in the 1967 Middle East war.
Under
the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1979, which returned Sinai to
Egypt, Cairo could deploy only lightly armed police on its side of the
border.
Instead
of amending the treaty, Egypt and Israel negotiated a separate
military protocol enabling Egypt to deploy more heavily armed border
forces.
Lingering
Occupation
 |
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"We will have to see ... the effect on the ground," said de
Soto.
|
But
Palestinians say the Israeli occupation will not truly be over until
Israel gives up control over Gaza's airspace, sea lanes and border
crossings, otherwise they will be living in a giant prison.
Palestinian
officials maintain that the Gaza pullout means an end to
"colonization" of the impoverished Strip and may constitute
a change in the "degree of occupation", but by no means an
end to occupation.
"Israel
will retain effective control over the Gaza Strip and will therefore
remain the occupying power," the Palestine Liberation
Organisation said in a statement carried by Reuters.
At
the core of the debate are also two legal standards.
The
first is the 1907 Hague Regulations stipulating that a territory
"is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the
authority of the hostile army."
Then
there is the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which lays out the
occupier's responsibilities for providing basic services to citizens
of the occupied territory, allowing free access to relief agencies and
not moving its citizens there.
Alvaro
De Soto, special UN envoy to the Middle East, called the Israeli
pullout a "step in the right direction" but said it was too
early to say what Gaza's new status would be.
"We
will have to see ... the effect on the ground," he said.
More
Settlements
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"The major (settlement) blocs will stay as part of Israel," said Sharon. (Reuters).
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Giving
credence to Palestinian fears that his Gaza plan was only part of a
scheme to consolidate Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Israeli
Premier Ariel Sharon said in an interview published Sunday that Israel
would keep expanding large West Bank settlements, despite expected US
objections.
He
also confirmed to the Washington Post his intention to retain
large West Bank settlement blocs under any future peace deal.
"The
major (settlement) blocs will stay as part of Israel ... yes, we have
small-scale construction within the lines. ...even now there is
construction," he added.
Asked
how he thought Washington would react to building in the occupied West
Bank, which runs counter to the US-backed roadmap peace plan, Sharon
replied:"We don't have an agreement with the United States about
this, but these areas are going to be part of Israel."
Palestinian
Foreign Minister Nasser Al-Qidwa said Saturday he would appeal for
more world pressure on Israel to halt expansion of its settlements in
his planned address to the United Nations General Assembly next week.
Under
the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,
where 245,000 settlers live isolated from 2.4 million Palestinians,
are a single geographic unit -- meaning either all of it is occupied
or none of it is.
Please
check:
Gaza
Settlements Facts& Figures
The
Land of Gaza Strip
