Gaza Withdrawal
- Ahmad Kashif Saeed, Islamabad

THE Israeli pullout from Gaza, no doubt, is a positive development but it has been acknowledged extraordinary by the United States and the Western World. In fact it is the first step towards the creation of an independent Palestinian State side by side with Israel.

That’s why, the Muslim World and the Palestinians have hailed this step thought they have apprehensions about it also.During the process of the evacuation, the Western and American’s media only highlighted the so-called sufferings of the Israeli settlers who were living there illegally.

The scenes in which the Israeli soldiers were trying to evacuate settlers who had barricaded themselves in a synagogue, young children hysterically crying were occupied by the TV screens worldwide.

They focussed mainly on the difficulties faced by these settlers and mostly interviewed those Israeli settlers who opposed that withdrawal. The interesting thing is that some settlers were complaining about their new homes, the homes which the majority of the Palestinians can’t imagine in their dreams.

In fact, the disturbance, which the settlers experienced, is much less as compared to the suffering of the Palestinian’s people since the creation of Israel. The way which the Israeli forces adopted for the evacuation also astonished the Palestinian people as well as the entire Muslim World.

The Israeli forces entered in to Jewish settlements without using any stuff which the Palestinian are used to. In fact, the Israeli forces used dialogue as a weapon for evacuation. The World media is trying to project this evacuation process as the big step towards the solution of this more than a half-decade old problem.

But there are many important points which the Western and American media totally ignored or gave a very little coverage. The most distressful point is that while withdrawing from Gaza, Israel’s home ministry is issuing tenders to expand various West Bank settlements.

Israel also continues to construct the Wall around West Bank. After the Gaza withdrawal, Israel will continue to control its borders, coastline and airspace. The most important point is that settlements and road networks in West Bank are designed in such a way which make it virtually impossible to build borders along the 1948 armistice line.

Bush’s “man of peace,” Israeli Prime Minister Ariel has also made no secret of his desire to entrench Israel’s hold over the West Bank by leaving Gaza voluntarily. It is also worth mentioning that all the valuable land and resources are in the West Bank, not in Gaza.

The United States and Israel expect from the Palestinian Authority after that withdrawal to disarm all groups struggling for independence including Hamas. These type of expectations are unfair to the Palestinians at that time. Before the creation of an Independent Palestinian State, which should be acceptable to all arm groups, it would be impossible to impose any such condition.●

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