Gaza: What it needs is Freedom

UN photo

By

Sami Jamil Jadallah

If anyone tells you that Israel ended its occupation of Gaza, he/she is in denial. Israel only vacated its soldiers and criminal trespassing settlers putting Gaza under total siege.

It is so ironic that the US only entrusts its Middle East policies, especially those related to the Arab-Israeli conflicts, to Jewish Americans and Zionists as if in the whole of America, there are no other groups more qualified than Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt and the American Israeli settler leader David Friedman.

President Donald Trump, having secured hundreds of billions from Gulf Arabs, the cost of political and military protection, is now using and leveraging this to promote his “Deal of the Century” pushing his Israeli-First agenda.

When the American public (minority) elected Donald Trump it was with the idea that he would make America Great Again and make America and the American people his priorities. As it turned out, he and his entire White House and Administration are all Israeli-First and America-Last.

The question now before us is can this president with questionable business dealings deliver on his “Deal of the Century”? Of course the deal is and as expected totally in favor of Israel and collaborating with Arab leaderships in need of US political and military protection.

The losers will be the Palestinian people, those in exile for the last 70 years and those under Israeli and PLO Occupation who entrusted their misfortunes to a corrupt, incompetent, illegitimate if not collaborative leadership in bed with the Israeli Occupation.

Meanwhile there are emerging interests on the part of the Israeli and the Americans with bashful and behind the scene support from certain Arab circles to isolate Gaza splitting from Ramallah as the PLO leadership wished all along. This is very clear from years of endless promises to end the split. One can only blame Abbas, PLO, Fatah and Hamas for whatever deal to emerge. It is this self-serving PLO, Fatah and Hamas leadership that has all along put the interests of the people in harm’s way.

There are talks of setting up an Egyptian based port to serve Gaza in addition to an Egyptian based power plant serving Gaza. Both are very bad deals for Gaza putting Gaza and the entire 2 million at the mercy of Egypt which at times can be no different from Israel. It seems everyone forgets that Egypt over the years has been part of the siege of Gaza, closing its borders at will and at a moment’s notice in partnership with Ramallah and Israel. But for the Egyptian siege of Gaza there would be no need for Hamas’ underground tunnels.

Egypt’s Mubarak, together with Abbas of Ramallah and Israel, have all played a key and pivotal role in taking Gaza and its people as hostage through coordinated efforts after Hamas won the elections. Fatah, the main beneficiary of Oslo and benefactor of the continued Occupation, could not stand let alone afford to have Hamas share with it the lucrative contract to manage the Israeli Occupation under the provisions of the Oslo Accords.

What Gaza needs more than ever is an international trusteeship that will relieve the people from the control of Hamas, end total siege by Egypt, Israel and Ramallah. It needs freedom for its people and freedom from relying on a never trusted nor reliable Egypt since the Egyptian Occupation back in 1948 which was replaced with the Israeli Occupation in 1967.

To do that there is a need to establish a port and an airport within Gaza territory with free and direct lines to Cyprus under international supervision by the UN and NATO, and a monitored sea corridor between Gaza and Cyprus as a staging point for all air and sea transport from Gaza.

The port and the airport will be under total and exclusive direct supervision and management of the UN and away from the self-serving Fatah, Hamas, Israel or Egypt. Keeping in mind also the lucrative contract negotiated by the Fatah leadership with Israel sharing the benefits of fees from all the truck trafficking between Gaza, Israel and the West Bank, a contract that made key Fatah leaders multi-millionaires.

This international trusteeship should last for 5 years during which time the people of Gaza will be able to rebuild what Israel destroyed and allow the emergence of a free willed political leadership that can manage the affairs of Gaza under the supervision of the UN, in contrast to Fatah that manages the Occupation under Israeli supervision.

I always advocated an international trusteeship for Palestine away from the illegitimate PLO and its corrupt, incompetent “institution” and away from the Israeli military and settler’s occupation, certainly away from the US’ totally biased partnership with the Israeli Occupation. I may add also there is nothing wrong with a totally demilitarized Gaza.

Finally, notwithstanding all the rhetoric coming out of Ramallah, the PLO leaders past and present never gave Jerusalem or its people the priority needed. Let us hope that Jordan will not succumb to the political and financial pressure to waive its rights as the custodian of Jerusalem holy places.

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sami Jamil Jadallah is a US citizen, an immigrant from Palestine with over 35 years of international legal and business experience in the US, Middle East, Europe and North Africa. He is a Veteran of the US Army and holds a BA degree in political science and economics, a master degree in public and environmental affairs and doctor of jurisprudence from Indiana University.

Active in international and local affairs, Sami is a co-drafter of the Preamble for the Constitution of the One State for All of its People in Palestine and is active in veteran’s affairs in support of their re-integration in American society. He lectures and writes on a variety of topics including terrorism, social, economic and political issues related to the US and the Middle East.

Sami believes that education is the only way to transform the Middle East into a peaceful productive region and calls on all foreign troops to get out of the Middle East, leaving the people to shape their own destiny. Sami is in semi-retirement but fully engaged in voluntary work and engaged in the peace movement in the Middle East.