In the Wake of Rafah, All Eyes on West Bank Apartheid Wall, a Ma'an Analysis

Date: 24 / 01 / 2008 Time: 13:43

Bethlehem – Ma'an –

When journalists used to ask late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat about the illegal Ariel Sharon's Land-Grab, Apartheid Wall, he used to answer without hesitation, "Sharon is repeating the experience of Berlin Wall, and so his wall will fall sooner or later simply because peoples can not be wrapped inside cement walls."

Hamas political leader Khalid Mash'al said on Tuesday at the Damascus conference: "After the Egyptians had nationalized the Suez Canal, and the Gulf states nationalized the oil, is the Rafah crossing so difficult for the Arabs to open?

It boils down to this: Gaza Strip residents suffered from a tyrannical siege, and their response was a rebellion which toppled Rafah wall. That aroused several questions by observers.

The revolutionaries, both left and right believe that the fall of the Rafah walls was a victory for Fatah before even it was so for Hamas. It was a triumph for every leftist revolutionary in the world before it was a victory for the Islamic movement.

The Israeli media were astonished by the collapse of the wall. Israeli Army Radio dedicated a morning show to the topic, with Ha'aretz journalist Amira Hass and Tel Aviv University professor Shaul Mishal in addition to Ma'an's chief editor Nasser Lahham.

Hass said that the attack on the Rafah wall was planned a month ago, which means that the Palestinians have done better strategic planning than the Israelis.

She added, "If the Israeli leaders always used to mock the Palestinians and say that Israel played chess while the Palestinians played ping pong, they have to realize now that the Palestinians are now playing chess and much better than the Israelis imagined."

Professor Mishal, who is an expert on Hamas, warned of the possibility that the Rafah wall experiment could be repeated in the West Bank. He also affirmed that the Palestinians are ahead of the Israelis strategically, which is eventually dangerous because their eyes are on the separation wall in the West Bank which they also consider to be a Berlin Wall.

However, he said that the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip will fail eventually, because it will be unable to fulfill the needs of ordinary Palestinians. which will end their role and a more extremist party will replace it. The announcer here asked, "such as Al-Qaeda?", and her replied, for instance.

Lahham told the Israeli audience: "In case the Palestinian political leadership announced the failure of negotiations, West Bank residents will immediately think of doing the same to the separation wall, and each city and village and refugee camp will turn their anger to the wall in their area. Peoples do not accept being wrapped in cement walls, besieged in this way."

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