Marwan Bishara (The Nation): Disengagement From Peace?

[Jack Rabbit]

From The Nation
Dated Thursday August 18

Disengagement From Peace?
By Marwan Bishara

Once the media circus is over, Israel's melodramatic withdrawal from the Gaza Strip should be judged by how it improves Palestinian lives and the chances of a just and peaceful resolution of the conflict.

On the face of it, ending thirty-eight years of Israel's military and civilian occupation is news. The evacuation of hundreds of illegally implanted Jewish families from the midst of close to a million and a half Palestinians, the majority of whom are refugees, will close the curtains on some of the occupation's most cynical scenes. That's why Palestinians are celebrating the withdrawal as a defeat for the occupation and victory for years of resistance. As a new Palestinian slogan goes, they hope for "Gaza today, tomorrow Jerusalem and the West Bank."

That is precisely what Ariel Sharon's plan aims to prevent. As settlers grieve, most Israelis approve of the withdrawal as a necessary demographic disengagement from an area that encompasses 2 percent of historical Palestine and 20 percent of all Palestinians. Israel's strategic redeployment around the hostile Strip and its total control over Gaza's ports and crossings allows it, at will, to turn the area into one big prison.

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[wli]

1. giant prison for Palestinians: sounds more like Sharon to me n/t