We will probably soon learn that top Israeli officials decided to let the two ships in the Free Gaza expedition land unmolested in Gaza because stopping them would make the Palestinian Authority look bad, for multiple reasons, including the terms of the 1994 and 1995 Oslo Accords which give Israel total security control over Gaza’s territorial waters in the Mediterranean Sea.
We will probably also come to realize that Israel’s interest in concluding a deal to purchase Gaza Gas from one or more wells located within Gaza’s territorial waters would be jeopardized — by focussing attention on quietly-made security arrangements by which the Palestinians re-agreed (in the years 1999-2001) to Israeli security control around those undersea gas wells.
We may or may not become more aware of Israeli unilaterally-imposed conditions on its unilateral “disengagement” from Gaza in 2005, which also involved more Palestinian acceptance of Israel’s total security control in Gaza’s territorial waters, and which Israeli sources reported Egypt also signed on to at the time. These terms were, I was told after the “disengagement”, dictated to Mohammed Dahlan, who was put in charge of coodination with Israel, but who became dissatisfied with how he was being treated and stopped cooperating, going off to Germany for medical treatment instead. One Palestinian official told me that “We were informed, and we had no choice”.
And, we will probably also hear that Egypt also made strong pleas to Israel to let the ships pass — and that those on-board may well exit through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza.
Ynet reported, in a strange article on Saturday that said “local residents were disappointed by the small quantities of food brought in by two boats carrying international leftist activists”, that a Palestinian source in Gaza “slammed Egypt for being ‘an inseparable part of the siege’.” This strange article can be read in full on YNet’s website here .
Haaretz reported late Saturday that “Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also lauded the activists, who docked at Gaza City’s tiny port Saturday evening, receiving a warm welcome from thousands of jubilant Palestinians after a two-day journey marred by communications troubles and rough seas”. This tidbit can be found in this article on the Haaretz website here .
In a separate article of analysis published in Haaretz on Sunday, it was reported that “Despite an Israel Defense Forces plan to halt boats bearing left-wing activists on their way to Gaza, the government decided to permit the boats to reach Gaza shores in order to avoid a public relations disaster. Senior political sources in Jerusalem said that the fact that Israel allowed the boats to reach Gaza ‘took the wind out of the sails of the left-wing activists who were seeking to create a provocation’. Several discussions were held last week on this matter. At the time, the IDF raised the idea of forcibly preventing the boats from reaching Gaza. The army officers suggested stopping the boats at sea and towing them to the Ashdod port for inspection, where the activists on board would be detained for interrogation. However, after further consultation, it was decided on Friday to avoid a confrontation and to allow the boats to reach the Gaza Strip. In the wake of that decision, urgent directives were sent to Israel’s embassies around the world regarding the st’ance they should take concerning this event. These are professional provocateurs and we did not want to cooperate with that on the open seas’, a senior political source in Jerusalem said. ‘Instead of letting the entire international press obsess about this for a week, the boats received almost no coverage, simply because there was no confrontation’ … Discussions will be held in the next few days on whether to stop the boats for inspection once they leave Gaza. Israeli officials are worried they might be used to smuggle wanted Palestinians out of the coastal strip. ‘They’ve got a reputation for protecting terrorists and acting as human shields’, the political source said”. This article can be read in full in Haaretz here .
And, Ynet on Sunday published remarks from the only Israeli on board the Free Gaza expedition, American-born Jeff Halper, of “Matrix of Control” fame (describing a physical carving up of the West Bank) and head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions: “In a phone interview with Ynet, Halper spoke about the reasons which motivated him and other left-wing activists to try and break the siege on the Strip: ‘There are people here yearning to live in peace with us, yearning for freedom. All these restrictions, they’re not just for security reasons, they’re symptomatic to something much, much deeper’. After years in the hub of anti-occupation and pro-peace activities, Halper decided to enlist the aid of some of his international peace activists’ associates and try and put the sail together. The idea, he explained, was motivated by the notion that world governments in general and the Israeli government in particular, are not doing enough to lift the siege. His boat – an old Greek liner which was renovated and sailed to Cyprus – ended up hosting 43 peace activists from around the world … The sail itself took about 36 hours. ‘We were pretty cut off (from the world) while we were on the boat. We were under the impression that it’s going to make headlines around the world. I felt a great since of responsibility and empowerment. A lot of people feel bitter in their everyday lives and here we felt we were doing something beautiful, acting against injustice. We felt we were on a mission… and by the response – we hit a nerve’.” Halper also said he wanted to convey to the world what a shambles once-beautiful Gaza had become. This can be read in full on YNet here .