Some 8,000 Israeli settlers are set to begin withdrawing from the Gaza Strip next Monday, bringing to an end an occupation that began in 1967 when the territory was captured from Egyptian control.
Their privileged position and lifestyle within a Palestinian population of 1.2 million, most of them refugees from the 1948 war of independence, has been a standing affront to justice and one of the world's most glaring contrasts in human conditions.
This is a major event, which it is to be hoped will stimulate the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Such a linkage has been made more politically explicit over the last year within Israeli politics, by a new Palestinian leadership and by the international quartet of powers associated with the road map towards a peace settlement agreed in 2003.
These developments have supplemented and channelled what began as a unilateral plan by Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to withdraw from Gaza to consolidate the 430,000 strong Israeli settlements on the West Bank and to spin out talks on a settlement indefinitely.
Mr Sharon persevered with his plan in the teeth of opposition from within his Likud party - evidenced most recently by the resignation on Sunday of finance minister Benjamin Netanyahu - and from extreme settler groups. It is difficult to fathom his motivations; they seem to have been rooted in a realistic assessment of the unsustainability of holding on to Gaza, the need to show Washington he was capable of taking potentially constructive initiatives, and a shrewd political reading of Israeli public opinion, which still favours reaching a two-state settlement with the Palestinians.
The Bush administration supported his rejection of talks with Yasser Arafat and gave him undertakings about West Bank settlements even as it held out the prospect of reviving peace talks. Mr Sharon strengthened his political position by agreeing a coalition with the Israeli Labour Party and had to firm up his commitment to settlement talks as a result.
All of this raises expectations that the Gaza withdrawal can be the prelude to real efforts to get the road map schedule back on track. Involving the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, it lays down phases, timelines, benchmarks and target dates for progress in political, institutional, security, economic and humanitarian fields. Even though circumstances have changed over the last two years, it should be possible to revive this process. Certainly the international will to do so remains in place.
A great deal will now depend on whether the withdrawal goes peacefully or is claimed as a victory for militant Palestinian movements. The Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas can demonstrate good will by exerting his influence against such extremism.
But he badly needs evidence of an Israeli willingness to deal constructively in return if he is to assert his authority. Such a potentially constructive dynamic is welcome indeed after such a long impasse.