Sir, – Israeli embassy press officer Dr Derek O’Flynn rehashes a narrative popular among Israeli spokespeople; that “in 2005, Israel gave up Gaza for peace” (“Israel wants a lasting peace”, Letters, May 19th).
Far from being a concession toward harmony, the Israeli government’s well-publicised withdrawal of its troops and illegal settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005 served as a decoy to deflect growing international outcry over its indefensible oppression of the Palestinian people, thus allowing Israeli policymakers to continue their occupation, fragmentation and de facto annexation of the larger and more desirable territory of the West Bank.
In a 2004 Knesset speech, Ariel Sharon declared that disengagement from Gaza would help to “preserve the large Israeli settlement blocs under our control forever”. His adviser Dov Weisglass explained that disengagement “supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians”.
Israeli historian Ilan Pappé points to another motive for the disengagement; “to turn the Gaza Strip into a mega-prison that could be guarded and monitored from the outside”, explaining that the presence of illegal Israeli settlers in the enclave would compromise the Israeli military’s ability to deploy “massive bombardments and the destruction of rebellious Palestinian pockets”, as it had done in the Jenin refugee camp a few years earlier.
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Needless to say, successive Israeli governments have adhered to both aspects of the blueprint. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN Ó ÉIGEARTAIGH,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
