Gaza: Refugees so close to their homes, yet so far away!
Palestine, Politics, 10/8/1999

Things have changed a lot over the past ten years in the little neighborhood inside Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza. The change has made it almost impossible for a visitor to remember how the place looked like at that time. Hatem Al Sissi, an 11-year old resident of the neighborhood, was the first Palestinian killed in clashes with Israeli troops in what later became known as the Palestinian uprising. "The first martyr of the first day of the intifada," was the title given to Al Sissi. The site where Israeli soldiers shot him on 9 December 1987 has become a public park for the neighborhood's children.

Visitors who come to Gaza, mainly foreigners and journalists, are usually taken to Jabalia as soon as they enter the Strip. The reason, Palestinians explain, is to remind everybody that the most crucial topic of the Arab-Israeli conflict, i.e. refugees, has not been solved yet and without its solution there can never be a permanent settlement in the region. Jabalia is the largest refugee camp where approximately 70,000 refugees live. Most of them have come from villages in the southern part of pre-1948 Palestine. Now they live in camps at a distance of no more than one hour drive. Their villages seem close to them yet so far away.

The other reason for taking visitors to Jabalia is of course the site where Al Sissi was killed. "We want to remind everybody of the very important role the Palestinian uprising played in achieving the current peace agreements with Israel and in forcing the Israelis to recognize the existence of the Palestinian people," said Yousef Al Sissi, a relative of Hatem.

Some of the refugees in Jabalia have already moved out of their old houses into new buildings, adjacent to the camp. Those who managed to find a decent job and earned a good living have moved to new three-bedroom apartments in the nearby five-story buildings. Each apartment would cost some US $60,000, an amount that is low by international standards yet too much for Palestinian families with limited income. Construction works have witnessed a strong boost since the Palestinian government was founded in 1994. They have contributed to decrease unemployment rates in the Gaza Strip especially when most workers were not allowed to go and work in Israel.

"The PNA encouraged private investments, and the local banks furnished many people with mortgages and loans to move to new houses," said Ahmad Sabawi, spokesman for the Preventive Security Apparatus in the Gaza Strip. He said that thirty years of military occupation in the Gaza Strip have ceased almost every aspect of daily life improvement and that the Palestinian government role was so challenging right after it was founded.

Sabawi was waiting on the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing point between Gaza and Israel. His role was to escort us in a tour in Gaza before we head for an interview with Colonel Mohammed Dahlan, commander of the Preventive Security Apparatus in the Gaza Strip. He explained that it was not so easy to set the appointment with Dahlan because, "The colonel is terribly busy these days with lots of issues, amongst them were the safe passage talks with Israel." Dahlan is a member of the negotiating team that has met for extended hours with their Israeli counterparts until they finally reached an agreement on the protocol to operate the safe passage between Gaza and Tarkoumiya village in the Hebron district on the West Bank.

"I am sorry for not being able to give more than ten minutes for this interview because urgent matters have just emerged," Colonel Dahlan started as he entered the room. Whoever works with President Arafat, he said, should forget his own schedule and follow Arafat's. Dahlan did not specify what the urgent matters were but it was obvious that what occupied his schedule was the safe passage. A few hours after he rushed out of the room, a deal was cut with Israel and the protocol to open the safe passage was signed.

"The safe passage will solve the tragic problems of our people, and we hope that tonight we will reach an agreement," said Dahlan. He added that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was very keen on signing the agreement because of the importance of the safe passage as it forms a geographic line of contact between the two parts of the Palestinian entity.

Dahlan stressed that security cooperation never ceased with Israel, even in the days of the former government of Benyamin Netanyahu. However he said, under Netanyahu the cooperation was rough and full of crises. "It was near impossible for us to continue security cooperation with Israel in the shadow of continued settlement activities, house demolitions and land confiscation," he said.

Dahlan said that the main issue that worried the Palestinian side was Israel's insistence on issuing the permits for safe passage users and thus forcing Palestinians to go to the Israeli offices to apply for those permits and to receive them at a later stage. "The days of Israeli military occupation are gone when our people had to report to the military offices for every single permit they needed," said Dahlan. He stressed that nowhere in the agreement does it say that Israel has any right to arrest any Palestinian using the safe passage.

"We understand that Israel has full sovereignty over the safe passage as far as laws are concerned. But the Israelis are not allowed to arrest any Palestinian using the safe passage, unless if such an arrest is required as a result of specific offense, such as a car accident, committed by a certain passenger," he said. In the beginning, he said, the safe passage will serve Palestinians who do have permits to cross into Israel. At a later stage, those who are not allowed to go to Israel because of their security record as ex-prisoners will be permitted to travel between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip aboard special buses that will be escorted by the Israeli military throughout the full trip of 45 kilometers inside Israel.

Dahlan refused to elaborate on the latest crackdown by the Jordanian authorities on Hamas, saying the matter was fully and purely Jordanian and that, "Any questions on the status of Hamas and the Jordanian measures against the movement should be addressed to the Jordanian authorities." As he spoke, his mobile phone rang and Dahlan answered: "Yes, Mr. President. I will be at your office in a few minutes." Dahlan apologized again saying he had to leave. Flanked with his bodyguards, he rushed out of the room.

After some effort, Colonel Rashid Abu Shbak, Dahlan's deputy, agreed to sit and talk on issues that Dahlan had no time to speak about. He said that the PNA had always information on contacts between the military wing of Hamas in the PNA areas and in the Occupied Territories, known as Izziddin Al Qassam Brigades, and the Hamas leadership in Amman. "During the 1996 bombings in Israel, we arrested most activists of Izziddin Al Qassam and captured great amounts of explosives and documents that proved they had contacts with Amman's Hamas," said Abu Shbak as he welcomed the measures taken by the Jordanian authorities against the Islamic militant movement. "Terror is not a Palestinian brand name at all but an international one, and therefore it is the duty of all world countries to eradicate this phenomenon," he said. He added that the PNA forces over the past year have foiled a number of attacks planned against targets in Israeli cities.

"We are not against Hamas in its capacity as a political party. We support political pluralism yet we are against any activity that violates our laws. Hamas or any other opposition is based on the commitment of these groups to the Palestinian law. We did not take measures against the PFLP or others because they did not breach the Palestinian law even though they are opposition groups," he said.

When asked to address the question of human rights status in the Palestinian government, Abu Shbak said that the Palestinian government is still "a young society and this is the first time we are practicing a self rule." He admitted that the Palestinian government is not like Sweden in the field of human rights but "is much better than many other countries in the region." He accused the Western and Israeli media of exaggeration when it addresses the question of human rights in the Palestinian government areas. "Israel speaks of itself as a democracy, yet there are more than 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and many others who are still serving more than five years under administrative detention without charges or trial." However, he quoted latest international reports on human rights status in the Palestinian government areas as praising the progress and the positive changes that have taken place lately.

Previous Stories:
  Expected changes in behavior between Syria and Israel regarding Palestinian opposition   (10/7/1999)
  Palestinian leadership demands Israel to suspend settlements activities   (10/4/1999)
  Mahmoud Darwish's speech at the occasion of the 50th anniversary of al-Nakba (the Catastrophe)   (5/14/1998)

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