Gaza - Israel continues to control Gaza, 16 months after it pulled out its settlements and military installations, with an "invisible hand" that has provoked a severe humanitarian and economic crisis, according to an Israeli human rights body.
Ending its 38-year military occupation of the Gaza Strip did not end Israeli control but simply changed the rules of engagement, charges Gisha, the Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement, in a report due to be published next week.
The organisation says that Israel's control over Gaza's borders, airspace, territorial waters, population registry, tax system and supply of goods means that it cannot absolve itself of responsibility for its citizens under international law.
"It's a new position made very clear in Hebrew before the courts but not something that Israel has made clear internationally," said Sari Bashi, Gisha's executive director.
"Sometimes Israeli soldiers still operate in the streets of Gaza but Israeli control of every aspect of the lives of Gaza citizens is constant, they know that their ability to do ordinary things like turn on a light or buy milk depends on decisions made by the Israeli military."
The report details how Israel has removed some of its elements of control while significantly tightening others.
"Far from improving the economy and welfare of Gaza residents, Israeli actions since September 2005 - including severe restrictions on the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza and an economic stronghold on the funding of civil services - have contributed to an economic and humanitarian crisis in Gaza not seen in the 38 years of Israeli control that preceded the withdrawal of permanent ground troops."
Gisha says that Gaza has been cut off from the outside world for 42 per cent of the time since the Strip was evacuated of Jewish settlers and troops. The Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt is operated by the Palestinian Authority under the supervision of European Union monitors and Israeli security officials who monitor operations with live video footage and passenger lists.
Travel through the crossing is restricted to Palestinians registered in the Israeli-controlled Palestinian population registry.
This means that foreigners may only enter Gaza via the Israeli-controlled crossing points in the north.
"Reports and internal military documents suggest that Israel has used the closure of the (Rafah) crossing to exercise pressure on Gaza residents. In the first year following the completion of its disengagement programme, Israel kept Rafah Crossing closed for 148 days." Since June last year, when militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier, the Rafah crossing has been closed for 80 per cent of the time and, on days that it has opened, has functioned only for a few hours.
At the same time Israel has also kept Gaza's other crossings mostly closed and has withheld monies needed to pay the salaries of civil servants and to run civilian institutions.
"The results of these controls have been devastating and have helped plunge Gaza into an economic and humanitarian crisis unprecedented in nearly four decades of occupation," says the report, seen by The Times.
Israel completely controls the import of goods into Gaza and exercises substantial control over exports from Gaza to third countries and to the West Bank.
The Karni Crossing between Israel and Gaza is the lifeline through Which commercial goods enter the Gaza Strip. Because imports to Gaza are not permitted via air, sea, or Rafah Crossing, only goods arriving first in Israel and inspected there can be brought into Gaza.
"The restrictions on imports via Karni Crossing have, at various points, caused severe shortages of basic goods that threatened the health and welfare of Gaza residents," the report says.
"Citing security warnings, Israel has closed Karni Crossing to exports for most of 2006, causing severe damage to Gaza's economy and rendering export crops virtually worthless. The closures caused an estimated $30 US million in losses in the first quarter of 2006 alone.
"During that time, farmers destroyed their crops, donated them, or left them to rot in the fields, because they could not get them out of Gaza and to export markets."
Another controversial are is control over the Palestinian Population Registry, which means control over who may enter and leave Gaza.
Since 2000, with few exceptions, Israel has not permitted additions to the Palestinian Population Registry, with the exception of children of Palestinian ID-card holders.
Tens of thousands of Gaza residents, primarily women who entered Gaza on visitor permits and married locals, cannot leave because they will not be permitted to return.
A result of these policies, says Gisha, is an unemployment rate which has risen between 2005 and 2006 from 33.1 per cent to 41.8 per cent, and Gross Domestic Product has declined by an estimated 30 per cent.
The report concludes:"So long as Israel exercises control over civilian life in Gaza, it will continue to owe obligations to those civilians whose lives depend on the decisions of a foreign military power.
BBC News, Gaza
17 January 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6270331.stm
Although Israel withdrew from Gaza more than a year ago, its control over the lives of Palestinians there is in some ways even tighter than before, a new report by an Israeli human rights organisation says.
In the days after Israeli troops and settlers pulled out of the territory, the then Israeli leader, Ariel Sharon addressed the United Nations.
He declared "the end of Israeli control over and responsibility for the Gaza Strip".
But a study by Gisha challenges that claim. The organisation says it aims to "protect the fundamental rights of Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories by imposing human rights law as a limitation on the behaviour of Israel's military".
"Israel continues to control Gaza through an 'invisible hand'," the organisation says, in a detailed, 100-page report.
"In contrast to the rhetoric used to describe the disengagement plan, Israel has not relinquished control over Gaza but rather removed some elements of control while tightening other significant controls."
Gisha argues that this means that Israel still has extensive legal obligations for the wellbeing of the territory's population that are not being met.
It says: "Gaza residents know that significant aspects of their lives - the ability to exit or enter Gaza, the supply of medicine, fuel and other basic goods, the possibility to transport crops to export markets, the ability to use electric lights - depend on decisions made by Israel's military."
The report begins by referring to the continued, overt military pressure on Gaza.
Until the ceasefire declared in November, Israeli air raids, artillery fire and armoured incursions led to the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians.
This was all part of the army's confrontation with militant groups - like the Islamic Jihad organisation - which are based in Gaza.
On an almost daily basis they launch crudely made missiles at towns and villages in neighbouring southern Israel - often describing their attacks as retaliation for Israeli army actions in the occupied West Bank.
Less visible controls
But the new study focuses more on the much less visible forms
of continuing Israeli control over Gaza.
There is an air blockade. Israel has not allowed Gaza's international airport to re-open.
The Israeli navy continues to patrol the coastline in what it says in an effort to prevent arms smuggling. Palestinian fishing boats are sometimes fired on for straying outside Israeli-imposed zones.
The Israelis have also been able to maintain control over all Gaza's land links with the outside world - including the territory's border with Egypt.
There are no Israeli troops on the frontier any longer, but Israel's co-operation is required for the border crossing to function under an agreement struck between Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and the European Union.
That Israeli co-operation has frequently been withdrawn, and the border was closed for nearly half of the first year after Israel pulled out of Gaza.
Israeli control over the flow of goods in and out of the territory remains total. And frequent closures of the main cargo terminal at the Karni crossing point have had a devastating impact on the Gazan economy.
Security threats
The Israelis say the restrictions have been necessary on account
of continual security threats. Two years ago there was an attack
by militants at Karni that left several Israelis dead.
But Palestinians believe that the border closures are part of a deliberate effort to maintain pressure on Gaza by strangling its economy.
The report also highlights a range of administrative controls.
It points out that Israel has retained control of the Palestinian population registry. This enables it to decide who can be a resident of Gaza - and who can come and go.
The reports says that tens of thousands of people have been barred from the registry and consequently have no identity papers.
The study sites the case of Mirvat Alnahal, a lawyer of Palestinian origin and who has lived in Gaza since the mid-1990s.
"I am trapped here. I cannot leave for fear that I won't be allowed to return," she says.
"My husband's ID card says he is married, but the box for spouse's name is blank. My children were born in Gaza to a mother who, officially, does not exist."
Crippled economy
The report stresses the importance of Israel's continuing control
over areas of the Palestinian tax system.
And in its effort to apply pressure on the Hamas government, Israel has withheld payment of tax revenue it owes the Palestinians worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The report points out that this has had a crippling impact on the services that the government has been able to provide - and the policy has constituted another example of Israel's ability to continue to exert significant control in Gaza.
The study ends by saying that despite the withdrawal of its soldiers, Israel's role in the territory means that it remains bound under international and humanitarian law to allow freedoms of movement and economic activity.
With continuing control comes continuing legal responsibility, the report says.
The Israeli government has completely rejected this conclusion.
Responding to the study, a foreign ministry spokesman said: "We would argue that to say legally that Israel has control of what goes on inside the Gaza Strip when there are no Israeli police, soldiers or civilians there is very far fetched.
"It doesn't hold water under international law."