I wanted to renew my magnetic card so that I could enter Israel to work. I left my house at 3:00 AM to go to the Palestinian police station in Jabalya. They sent me and others to Erez… At 2:00 PM, after being on the Israeli side for five hours, they called out my name on the loudspeaker, and they told me to go with one of the soldiers.

The soldier took me into a room where a GSS agent was sitting, and then he left… After standing there in front of the agent for ten minutes, he ordered me to sit down, and then asked me: "Abu Hashish, why were you refused?" I replied that I should ask him that question. He got mad, and said that he is the only one asking questions. Then he asked me where I live. In a Bedouin village in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, I told him.

Then he turned the computer terminal around to me and showed me an aerial photo of the area where I live, and asked me to point out my house. I did as he asked. He asked me what I would do if I saw terrorists fire at the Nisanit settlement. I told him that I would inform Palestinian National Security in my village. He told me that National Security doesn't do a thing.

Then he tried to get my telephone number, but I told him that I didn't have a telephone. He told me that I was lying, and then he shouted at me: "Who are the terrorists in Badwiya who are firing the mortars?" I replied that I did not know, and that the shelling hurts me and the villagers more than it does the Israelis. Then he ordered me to stand next to the door for fifteen minutes, after which he called two soldiers, who took me to the waiting room… I waited there until 4:30 PM, and left without the magnetic card.

Testimony of Muhammad Abu Hashish, resident of al-Badwiya (northern Gaza Strip), married with four children

The above testimony, part of a report released by the Israeli Human Rights group HaMoked: The Centre For the Defence of the Individual, highlights many of the problems of freedom of movement suffered by Palestinians, even on the eve of the Israeli 'disengagement' from Gaza. Despite advanced and sophisticated surveillance techniques, (the aerial photos accessible on computer terminals, the magnetic cards) the Israeli Defence forces manning the perimeter fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel are paranoid, arbitrary and high handed in their behaviour.

This directly affects individual Palestinians economically (I wanted to renew my magnetic card so that I could enter Israel to work), and is violation of human dignity. Things are likely to continue this way, despite the Israeli 'disengagement' plan. (The report is titled, 'One Big Prison: Freedom of Movement to and from the Gaza Strip on the Eve of the Disengagement Plan.')

Disengagement Plan

On 20 February 2005, the Israeli Government obtained the necessary approval to carry out the "Disengagement Plan," which calls for the Israeli military to leave the Gaza Strip and for the evacuation of all the Israeli settlements in Gaza. However, even after the plan is implemented, Israel will continue to maintain absolute control over the land borders of the Gaza Strip, and of the Gaza Strip's air space and territorial waters.

As a result, even after disengagement, Israel will control the movement of people and goods to and from the Gaza Strip. Despite this, the Government expressly states that disengagement will, in the words of the Israeli Government, "invalidate the claims against Israel regarding its responsibility for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."

But, as this comprehensive report proves, this disengagement will be tantamount to Israel resolutely turning its back after stirring up a hornet's nest. Israel's control of the borders of Gaza, going by the trends indicated in this report, are going to make Gaza a veritable high density prison, denying Palestinians the freedom of movement, and consequently many medical, economic and educational opportunities.

Even more disturbingly, the Israeli policy separates people in Gaza from their families in Israel and the West Bank, and will seriously undermine the territorial and political integrity of a future Palestinian state, by separating the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by fifty insurmountable kilometres.

A long and complicated process

Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa intifada in the September of 2000, the Israeli policy restricting movement to and from Gaza has become much stricter, as a result of a wave of suicide bombings in Israel, which accompanied the civil and military unrest in the Palestinian territories. Now every individual seeking to cross from Gaza to the West Bank has to get an individual permit - a long and complicated process.

Requests for permits are rejected not on the basis of individual profiles or substantive evidence, but on sweeping criteria of age and family status, which are set by the GSS (General Security Services), regardless of the Defence establishment's suspicions against the applicant. In response to the petition filed by ten residents of the Gaza Strip in which they demanded that Israel allow them to travel to the West Bank to study social work at Bethlehem University, the Israeli State, through the High Court judgement admitted that its refusal - "is not based on a particular examination of each of the petitioners, but on the assessment made by security officials whereby individual examinations are not conducted to eliminate the fear of a threat to regional and state security inherent in granting the petitioners permits to exit the Gaza Strip, in light of their risk profile and because of intelligence reasons…"

Even given Israel's right to defend its citizens, this is an extreme stance, particularly as it affects the livelihoods, and personal lives of those Gazans who have friends, relatives, spouses, lovers or parents in either Israel or the West Bank. Many Israeli Arabs have married residents of Gaza, and for such families, this policy has meant a long separation of husbands and wives, parents and children.

Ban on family unification

Over the years, Israel has deliberately tightened its policy regarding family unification in Israel, and has encouraged divided families to establish their home in the Gaza Strip. In May 2002, the possibility for family unification in Israel was also formally blocked when the Government decided to halt acceptance of new applications for family unification in which the partner requesting status in Israel is a Palestinian resident of the Occupied Territories, and to freeze the processing of applications already submitted. In July 2003, the Knesset passed a new law completely abolishing the family unification procedures in such cases.

The Cairo Agreement of 1994 and the Interim Agreement of 1995 between The Israelis and Palestinians envisaged a "safe passage" route through Israeli territory, along which Palestinians could travel between the West Bank and the Gaza strip. The safe passage materialised in October 1999, only to close again within a year.

However, it is technically possible for a Palestinian from Gaza to get to the West Bank without crossing Israeli Territory. Residents of the Gaza Strip can enter Egypt through the Rafah crossing, go by taxi to the airport in el-Arish or Cairo, and fly to Amman, in Jordan. From there, they can take a taxi to the Allenby Bridge, and then go to anywhere in the West Bank. It is a considerably long and expensive way of traversing a distance of a mere fifty kilometres. Usually though, even this possibility exists only on paper.

There has always been a considerable movement of travellers between the Gaza Strip and the other Arab nations, particularly Egypt. The residents of the Gaza Strip have extensive and diverse ties with these countries. Many of them have relatives in Arab countries, most of whom are Palestinian refugees who settled in these countries after the 1948 war. Thousands of residents of Gaza have spent varying periods of time working in Arab countries, particularly in the Persian Gulf states.

Many young Gazans study at Egyptian universities, and many residents of Gaza rely on medical treatments provided in the Arab nations, particularly in Egypt and Jordan. The importance of these contacts enhances the implications of Israel's tight control over movement of Gazans to other countries. Israel has made the Rafah crossing the sole exit point to go abroad from Gaza, thus restricting the Gazans from using the Ben Gurion Airport. In January 2001, Israel closed the Palestinian airport near Rafah, built as a provision of the Oslo agreements, and later destroyed it in an aerial attack.

Rafah crossing

The Rafah crossing, the only exit from Gaza, was closed for a total of sixty six days last year. During this protracted closure of Rafah crossing, over 7,000 Palestinians were "trapped" in Egypt waiting to go home. Hundreds were forced to spend many days in the crossing area. Seven residents who had left the Gaza Strip to undergo medical treatment were caught in this situation and died while they waited at the crossing. After Israel refused to allow the bodies to be transferred to the Gaza Strip, they were buried in el-Arish in Egypt. In April 2004, Israel announced that residents of the Gaza Strip between the ages of sixteen and thirty-five (both men and women) were prohibited from travelling abroad.

Even if Palestinians manage to travel abroad to get to their own country - the West Bank - they still face the wrath of the Israeli authorities. One of the gravest aspects of the separation policy implemented by Israel is the practice of expelling to the Gaza Strip Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip who have transferred their place of residence to the West Bank. Expulsion to the Gaza Strip has also been implemented by Israel as a form of administrative punishment against residents of the West Bank suspected of involvement in violent acts against Israelis. These expulsions make a mockery of the territorial integrity of the Palestinian nation, and the rights of its residents to reside where they will.

Severe economic repercussions

The Israeli policies with regard to the Gaza border also have severe economic repercussions. From the beginning of the occupation to the beginning of the peace process in 1993, the Israeli policy was to integrate the economy of the West Bank and Gaza with that of Israel, but without any development in these areas, and by increasing their dependence on the Israeli economy. Investments and infrastructure were discouraged, and imports of certain goods from other countries were blocked, making these areas a 'captive market' for Israeli goods.

Agricultural exports from the Occupied territories to Israel were restricted. With all of these restrictions, a large number of people from the Occupied Territories worked in Israel, where they were paid less than Israeli workers. With the movement of both goods, and people, controlled and increasingly squeezed by Israel, the economic freedom of the Palestinian territories is essentially mythical. In the third quarter of 2000, just before the beginning of the intifada, the number of workers crossing from Gaza to Israel by the Erez crossing were 26,565. In the last quarter of 2004, this number was down to 24.

Unemployment and poverty

Along with this blockade on workers, exports from the Gaza Strip have also sharply declined since the second intifada, causing a significant decrease in production and a substantial increase in unemployment and poverty. The immediate cause of the reduction in exports was the sharp decline in competitiveness of Gaza products. Palestinian manufacturers have difficulty competing for existing and potential clients, primarily regarding reliability of supply. This is due, in large part, to Israel's policy on the movement of goods to and from the Gaza Strip. Israel's policy almost completely precludes a crucial element of successful foreign trade: predictability.

Palestinian manufacturers and merchants are unable to plan the production and marketing of their products, much less undertake to meet a reasonable timetable. In the summer of 2000, work began on constructing the infrastructure of a seaport on the coast of Gaza City. A seaport which would have made the lives of Palestinian exporters easier. However, in October, the Israeli Air Force bombed the building site in 'response' to an incident in Ramallah (The West Bank) where a Palestinian mob killed two Israeli soldiers.

Through news reports, through statistics, through oral testimonies, through policy papers, through law books, HaMoked has built up a case against Israel's policy of controlling the borders of Gaza, and the fallacy of the 'disengagement'. The text of the Disengagement Plan, adopted by the Israeli Government on the 6th of June 2004, claims, "completion of the plan will invalidate the claims against Israel on its responsibility for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip." The plan further states that, as a result of implementation of the plan, "there will be no basis for the contention that the Gaza Strip is occupied territory."

But with the effective control that Israel will continue to have over the freedom of movement of Palestinians living in Gaza; Gaza will, for all intents and purposes continue to be an occupied territory. Israel's goal in the long run is to "reduce, to a total cessation, the number of Palestinian workers entering the State of Israel." Israel will continue to control the Philadelphi route, which runs along the Gaza-Egypt border. Israel will also maintain sole control of the airspace and territorial waters of the Gaza Strip.

Needless to say, it is not necessary that the invading forces occupy every locality in the hostile area in order to establish a state of effective occupation. Israel's claim of an "end of the occupation" is questionable, as are the responsibilities of the occupier. Gaza continues to be prison for those who live in it, denied freedom to move beyond its borders by the Israeli perimeter around Gaza. In the words of Abu Majid, who has spent time in Israeli prisons, "The only thing missing in Gaza is the morning line-up."