Evacuating Gaza to Solidify Occupation of West
Bank
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers have completed the removal of
settlers from all but a few of the settlements slated for evacuation in the
Gaza Strip and have now turned their attention to the evacuation of three small
settlements within the West Bank.IDF
bulldozers are in the process of destroying any existing infrastructure in the Gaza settlements to
ensure they cannot be of use to the Palestinian people.
Massive media
coverage has created the impression that the Gaza withdrawal is a defeat for the settler
movement and a huge concession on the part of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon, who is considered by many to be the father of the settler
movement.
Maintaining the
occupation in Gaza has always been extremely expensive for Israel, while the
settlements have been of little strategic value – they are not situated on or
close to prime agricultural land, as is the case with many of the West Bank
settlements, for example, and they are cut off from access to the Jordan
Sea.Withdrawing from Gaza
is a strategic move for Israel
– allowing Sharon to focus his attention on
consolidating the dozens of West Bank
settlements with their hundreds of thousands of
inhabitants.
While world
attention has been focused on Gaza, construction
on the separation wall around and beyond existing Jewish settlements in the
West Bank and East Jerusalem has continued.Indeed, the Sharon
government is paying settlers removed from Gaza
hundreds of thousands of dollars to relocate to key West Bank
settlements, using the promise of the separation wall as an enticement to a
more “permanent” home.