Egyptian role in Gaza worries Palestinians

JERUSALEM: Almost half of Palestinians oppose Egypt’s offer of a security role in Gaza if Israel pulls out settlers, underscoring concerns that it would serve only Israeli interests, according to a new poll released on Sunday.

It also found surging popularity for Islamic militants who fear an Egyptian security presence could tie their hands in conflict with Israel if, as now envisaged, it keeps Gaza sealed off and tries to annex parts of the West Bank after a withdrawal.

“We see considerable Palestinian concern that what Israel is proposing would leave them in a suffocating Gaza ghetto while it consolidates its main settlement enterprise in the West Bank,” said Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research which conducted the poll.

Cairo, one of only two Arab states to have peace treaties with Israel, has offered to send up to 200 security experts to Gaza help prevent any collapse into factional anarchy or an Islamist takeover on its borders after Jewish settlers leave.

Over 80 percent in the poll backed Cairo’s demand for merging chaotic Palestinian security organs under an empowered interior minister. But just 51 percent of Gaza Palestinians favoured an Egyptian presence, with 46 percent opposed.

“This relative lack of support can be explained by a fear that one occupation would end only for another to begin,” Shikaki told Reuters from Ramallah in the West Bank. Egypt ruled Gaza from 1948 to 1967, when Israel captured it in war.

“The militant factions and their supporters do not want an arrangement where they would come under great pressure to give up the right to resort to arms if that arrangement means quiet on solely Israeli terms,” he said.

The Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups largely rule the streets of Gaza and are echoes of Muslim militants in Egypt whose bid to overthrow the Cairo government in the 1990s was crushed.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has publicly endorsed Egypt’s offer but resisted previous calls for security reforms.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has scheduled the Gaza evacuation for 2005, welcomed Egypt’s offer of security advisers but rejected any mediating capacity for Cairo.

Fifty-five percent in the poll backed continued militant attacks on Israelis from Gaza if Sharon’s “disengagement” blueprint did not translate to a complete withdrawal.

Sharon foresees keeping Gaza isolated by land and sea, with Israeli troops on its border with Egypt, for security reasons.

But a World Bank report last month said Gaza could not become peaceful without an end to Israeli closures to enable economic revival which would reduce the appeal of militancy.

The poll found 35 percent loyal to Muslim militant factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza compared with 27 percent for Arafat’s faltering mainstream Fatah movement.

Fatah has been discredited among many Palestinians over its corruption, mismanagement and internal feuding. The poll showing was Fatah’s weakest against Islamist rivals since a revolt in Israeli-occupied territories led by militants erupted in 2000.

Wary of Islamist sentiment, Cairo wants any Israeli removal of settlements in Gaza to be part of a broader pullout from all occupied territory. But Sharon’s plan falls well short of that.

Egypt’s initiative also hinges on a ceasefire to avoid its personnel getting sucked into conflict in Gaza. Seventy-nine percent of Palestinians polled favoured a ceasefire. But Israel and the militant factions have shown little inclination for a truce as they continue to battle in Gaza to be able to claim “victory” in connection with a withdrawal.

The PSR questioned 1,320 people from June 24 to 27 and the poll had a three percent margin of error. reuters

Home | National