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<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=5>One Year After 'Disengagement' from
Gaza, Israelis are Gone but their Ghosts Remain <br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>By Rami Almeghari <br><br>
Al-Jazeerah, September 14, 2006<br><br>
Bloodshed, destruction and fear are the remnants of the Israeli
occupation army across the Gaza Strip since the Israeli settlers were
evacuated on September 12, 2005 army. A year has passed since the Israeli
'disengagement' from Gaza, and since then there remains only the Israeli
occupation's ghost, moving from one place to another throughout the Gaza
Strip -- home to 1.3 million Palestinians, one of the most crowded places
on earth. <br><br>
In myths we learned that a ghost can never kill, but instead sabotages
one's life by haunting its victims - causing panic, leaving no room for
peaceful sleep. The role of ghosts in mythology has become the reality of
the Gaza Strip. <br><br>
Israel's ghost for the past year of 'no-occupation' is still casting
fear, panic and destruction everywhere in Gaza, starting from the
northernmost city of Beit Hanoun down to Beit Lahia, from eastern Gaza
City to the central Gaza Strip refugee camp of Maghazi, and from Khez'a
town to Rafah in the south. <br><br>
The ghost, which lies on the borders of this most-densely populated part
of the world, has been causing a great deal of devastation to Gaza's
human beings, infrastructure and economy, since September 12, 2005.
<br><br>
The populated parts of Gaza are empty of a single Israeli soldier; they
have all disappeared from the sight of ordinary Gazans, yet these Gazans
are still being victimized by these soldiers' ghosts. <br><br>
Right after the disengagement, Israeli jetfighters hovered in the Gaza
sky, as an apparent reminder that they indication that they still
existed. They spread panic every day and night by their 'sonic booms',
that sound like bombs, on a daily and nightly basis. <br><br>
In addition, the Israeli army created a one-kilometer deep buffer zone in
the northern Gaza Strip, under the pretext of preventing Palestinian
resistance groups from firing homemade rockets at nearby Israeli towns.
<br><br>
Israeli warplanes and drones committed a series of extra-judicial
assassinations -- targeted killings, claiming the lives of dozens of
Palestinians, including dozens of innocent women, men and children.
<br><br>
Also, throughout the past year, the Israeli occupation's ghost kept
control over the main Gaza border crossing points, such as the Rafah
crossing terminal (which is now observed by European observers), and the
Karni and Sofa commercial crossings, thus having complete control over
the movement of people and goods alike, and turning the Gazans into
puppets controlled by this invisible hand. <br><br>
This ghost also interfered in Palestinian politics, by rejecting the
outcome of the Palestinian elections -- elections which were judged to be
the most democratic in the Middle East, which brought to power the Hamas
movement on January 25, 2006 -- just four months after disengagement.
<br><br>
So tax money due to the newly-elected Palestinian government has been
withheld by Israel since January. The ghost's finger has gestured to
others to take the same stand, and international aid has been cut to the
entire population, in an attempt to undermine the Palestinian political
system as well. <br><br>
Israel's rejection of the electoral outcome has pushed the Palestinian
economy to the brink of collapse, with crossings closed and 160,000
Palestinian government employees having received no salaries since March.
<br><br>
Shortly before mid 2006, after 8 months of disengagement, the ghost's
intrusion into Palestinian life in Gaza has reached a climax, as the
Israeli occupation army stepped up its attacks on all parts of Gaza areas
including Gaza's shore, where a 7-member family, including women and
children, were killed in cold blood by Israeli fire. <br><br>
In June 2006, the Israeli undercover units abducted two Palestinian
brothers inside the Palestinian borders in Rafah city, instigating some
Palestinian resistance groups to retaliate by infiltrating into Israeli
borders and killing two Israeli soldiers while abducting a third.
<br><br>
This unprecedented attack on an Israeli army base inside Israeli borders
to the south of Rafah has led to the apex of Israeli army attacks on the
Gaza Strip, known as 'Summer Rain' (the codename for the current Israeli
military operation in various parts of the Gaza Strip). With 'Summer
Rain', the ghost has materialized as a physical apparition -- and unlike
the ghosts of mythology, this apparition can kill, with complete
impunity. <br><br>
From June 27 until this very moment, Israeli soldiers are killing
humans, destroying homes and uprooting trees throughout Gaza. The Israeli
occupation army has killed more than 250 Palestinian men, women and
children, wounded more than 1000 others, devastated Gaza's power plant,
bridges, ministerial buildings, farms and houses, thus leaving the
population of 1.4 million people without electricity. It is as if the
people of Gaza are living in the stone age -- a time when people actually
believed in such things as ghosts. <br><br>
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San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
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