- Hatem Abu Eltayef has a vision for the future of his
crowded and battered town once the Israelis have retreated from the sprawling
settlement on the other side of the barbed wire and machine gun posts.
-
- The town planner of Khan Yunis, at the southern end of
the Gaza Strip, foresees new homes for the dispossessed, shopping strips,
and tourists rubbing shoulders with locals on some of the finest beaches
in the Mediterranean. His scheme is laid out in detailed plans he spreads
on the table before him.
-
- "People here say they want to go to the beach. They
dream about it," Mr Eltayef says. "But they also need housing
and healthcare and more schools. Once the Jews are gone we have a plan
to build homes and shops and develop the beach for tourists. It will be
a paradise."
-
- First, however, there is the problem of what the settlers
leave behind.
-
- The Gush Katif Jewish settlements consume about 1,600
hectares (4,000 acres) of the Gaza Strip between Khan Yunis and the sea,
penning Palestinians behind the army watchtowers. But the estimated 8,000
settlers in Gaza must leave this summer or be removed by force as part
of Ariel Sharon's unilateral "disengagement plan".
-
- After that, the Palestinians will finally gain control
of what they describe as the last reserve of land in the territory to help
cope with a rapidly growing population and to provide for thousands of
people bulldozed from their homes by the Israeli army. But the fate of
the settlers' 1,500 homes is still unresolved.
-
- A few months ago the stage was set for bitter dispute
over what to do with them. The Israeli government said it had no intention
of seeing Hamas flags raised over abandoned Jewish houses. The Palestinians
said that to demolish the buildings would be wanton and spiteful destruction.
-
- A closer examination of the issue has led each side to
change position. Israel still plans to remove sensitive properties, such
as synagogues, and to carry back the dead from the Khan Yunis graveyard.
And it always planned to leave in place infrastructure such as schools,
electricity plants and commercial greenhouses.
-
- But Mr Sharon now believes it would be better to leave
most of the housing intact. Officials say the government is worried about
the image that might be created by Israel razing relatively new homes (Jewish
ones, at least; it shows little concern over the bulldozing of hundreds
of Palestinian houses). But the Palestinian leadership believes that, if
left in place, the settlers' homes could prove a political headache.
-
- Mohammed el-Samhouri, a consultant to the Palestinian
ministerial committee deciding how best to use the abandoned settlements,
says the houses are unsuitable for their needs: "We're not looking
for American housing where you have a backyard and a frontyard and a tennis
court. We would rather they demolished them."
-
- The houses are designed for Jewish families of up to
10 people, whereas several generations of a Palestinian family usually
live in the same building.
-
- "The problem is these settler homes are small and
a very poor use of the available land," says Ragheb Attallah, the
chief planner for Khan Yunis council. "Palestinians have big families
and they need two or three storeys."
-
- Jewish settlers account for less than 1% of the population
of the Gaza Strip but control about 20% of its land. While the residents
of Gush Katif live in comfortable middle-class homes with lawns, parks
and ready access to the beach, Palestinians are crowded into Khan Yunis
where roads, sewerage and homes are often in a deplorable state.
-
- The Palestinian Authority fears that desperate families
from Khan Yunis and neighbouring Rafah may move in to the empty homes and
it will be hard to get them out again. Some Palestinians fear that some
of their political leaders, widely scorned for corruption, will grab the
settler properties for themselves.
-
- Recreation
-
- "I think the land now under Israeli control is very
important for the development of Khan Yunis and Rafah," says the Palestinian
local government minister, Khalid Kawasmi, who is a member of the committee
that will decide how to use the settlements. "These two towns are
in a critical situation. It will help provide areas for construction and
economic development, mainly by using the land for agriculture and the
beach for recreation and tourism."
-
- Besides the housing, hundreds of acres of highly profitable
greenhouses the Palestinians will inherit also pose a problem. The settlers
produce cut flowers and fruit and vegetables, mostly sold in Europe in
contracts with supermarkets.
-
- The US plans a £50m aid programme to help run the
greenhouses but the Palestinians, from bitter experience, know they will
still be hostage to Israeli control of the Gaza border. Palestinians who
already produce cut flowers say that to export them they are forced to
use an Israeli cartel that pays less than market value. In the 90s Palestinian
growers tried to switch to exporting via Egypt but they say Israeli security
checks led to hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of flowers being left
in the sun until they were worthless.
-
- In his office, Mr Eltayef spreads out plans for the abandoned
settlements, beginning with the construction of high-density housing for
the poor, followed by a new commercial district and finally accommodation
for tourists. Asked where the tourists will come from, he says: "Tel
Aviv."
-
- There is another factor to contend with that has emerged
since the 80s, when Israelis and Palestinians mingled on Gaza's beaches
- that of Islamist groups imposing their morality. Hamas has stopped the
open sale of alcohol in Gaza, and women no longer wear bikinis. "I
don't think next summer we will see women topless on the beaches in Gaza,"
Mr Shafi says.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2005
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,1475267,00.html
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