Politics
Lindsey Hilsum smells rotting strawberries
Published 27 February 2006
Hamas has maintained a ceasefire, with no suicide bombings and no attacks on Israel, for a year. That is a hopeful sign
It's been a good year for strawberries in Gaza. Plentiful rains and careful husbandry have made them plump and red and juicy. Shame so many rotted at the Karni crossing because Israel wouldn't let them through for export, citing security concerns.
You might think that is because of concern over the new, Hamas-led government in the Palestinian territories. Some anxiety is to be expected, after all, when a group endorsing suicide bombing has been elected. But you'd be wrong. The Israelis closed Karni on 15 January, before Hamas came to power. They said the Palestinians were digging tunnels under the crossing, presumably so terrorists could sneak through. The UN says that trenches dug by the Palestinian Authority (PA) on the orders of the Israelis found no tunnels. Yet still tonnes of strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers and flowers lie rotting, robbing the Palestinians of $500,000 a day.
You might think from the Israelis' statements that their refusal to deal with Hamas signifies a new policy, as if they had previously co-operated with the PA. Again, you'd be wrong. Israel boycotted the PA when it was led by Yasser Arafat, and has dealt only spasmodically with his "moderate" successor, Mahmoud Abbas. Ariel Sharon decided that Israel would change reality on the ground without negotiation, so he withdrew Jewish settlements from Gaza unilaterally. He was biding his time until his next move when he suffered his massive stroke in January.
In some ways it was a good idea to "change the strategic equation", as one Israeli general put it. Most Palestinians were delighted to see the settlers leave and Israel was probably right that negotiations would have ended in impasse. But diplomats who bleat that the election of Hamas will damage the "peace process" and the "road map" must have been asleep for years. Have they not noticed that there has been neither peace nor process since the Americans stopped applying pressure to either side? The truck careered off the road and the map was abandoned. The Israelis have been building a wall to insulate themselves from terror attacks and annex Palestinian land, while the Palestinians have been unilaterally squabbling and - in the case of former government officials - stealing. The result was the election of Hamas: a protest against the status quo.
Now the Israeli government says it won't hand over the $50m a month in import and export taxes it collects on behalf of the PA. Note that this is not Israel's money; it is Palestinian money, but the previous PA was foolish enough to allow Israel to collect it in the interests of efficiency. The tax accounts for about half the PA's revenue, most of the rest being made up by European and US aid - which may yet be withheld in protest at Hamas's refusal to recognise Israel and lay down arms.
It is worth noting that Hamas has maintained a ceasefire, which means no suicide bombings or other attacks on Israel, for a year. Such control over its own militants might be seen as a hopeful sign, alongside its anti-corruption stance, but only the Russians, who have invited Hamas officials to Moscow, seem to see the opportunity rather than the danger. They have offered a "long-term ceasefire", just as Sharon suggested an interim solution before the creation of a Palestinian state, but this too is dismissed.
In the meantime Hamas is combing the Muslim world for funds. On Monday its political leader, Khaled Mishaal, was in Tehran meeting Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who will happily plug the financial gap if Hamas adheres to his anti-western agenda. "Palestinian people knew that their vote for Hamas meant the fight against the Zionist occupier regime," he said. (In fact, most people I met in Gaza last month voted Hamas because they were angry with the corrupt Fatah leadership. "Ideology accounted for less than 15 per cent of votes," said the Gazan psychologist Eyad Serraj. "People voted on corruption and social issues.")
A New York Times article of 14 February, citing unnamed Israeli officials, suggested that Israel planned to starve Hamas of funds in the belief that this might lead to new elections that "moderates" would win. The naivety is astounding - do they really believe that if civil servants are not paid, Palestinians will blame Hamas rather than Israel and then obediently reverse their election choice?
Last week, this magazine revealed Foreign Office plans to engage with "political Islam" in the form of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, a close ally of Hamas. This acknowledges reality without endorsing terror. Hamas is not about to become the Liberal Democrats, but it came to power in a legitimate election. It may yet descend into corruption or return to violence, but right now there is all to play for.
I left Gaza through the Erez crossing. Palestinians lined up in concrete corridors and the voices of teenage Israeli conscripts ordered them, through loudspeakers, to wait, turn around and put their hands above their heads. More security, more humiliation. Now Israel talks of closing Erez, too, cutting off Gaza completely, as punishment for the election of Hamas. Such measures will radicalise Palestinians further, as the Americans endorse the Israeli line and Europe misses a chance to challenge US policy and gain credibility in the Arab world.
Lindsey Hilsum is international editor for Channel 4 News
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