Israeli Escalation Against Palestinian Workers: 

Israeli Press Labels Gaza Workers Infiltrators

Israeli Press Labels Gaza Workers Infiltrators

Published today (updated) 17/05/2010 16:22

Bethlehem - Ma'an -

Just over one month after Israeli occupation forces orders 1649 and 1650 went into effect, the Israeli mainstream press began labeling Gaza workers in Israel "infiltrators."

Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth's English news site published the story "IDF nabs 2 Gazan infiltrators" on Monday, saying that what appear to be illegal workers were suspected of "terrorist infiltration" and taken for questioning.

A title previously reserved almost exclusively for migrants sneaking into Israel from Egypt along the Sinai border - most often from Sudan and Eritrea - or occasionally individuals found entering the Israeli borders from Syria or Lebanon, the reference comes amid continued fears and uncertainty over the implementation of the orders.

The April orders expand the military definition of "infiltrator" to include any Palestinian living in areas under Israeli control without express Israeli permission, sparking fears among Palestinians registered with Gaza ID cards living in the West Bank, and increasing tensions for all Palestinians without Israeli IDs living on the Israeli side of the Green Line.

The orders, however, were so vague that they could also apply to foreign passport holders working in Palestinian areas as well.

Palestinian and international advocacy groups immediately started campaigns for the revocation of the order, while most "green ID" Palestinians (registered with the Palestinian Authority) waited to see how the orders would be used.

The first case reported was that of former prisoner Ahmad Sabah who was released from Israeli custody into Gaza, where he was registered, and not into the West Bank where his family was, and where he had lived prior to his detention.

Then came cases of Palestinians with lapsed permissions living in Beerhseba and Yaffa, detained from medical facilities and taken to Gaza. One was cleared and returned to Yaffa, while the fate of the second man remains unclear.

De facto government officials in the coastal enclave have called the expulsions illegal and so far refused entry to all those deported from their homes since the order was put in place.

A man allegedly deported from his home in Adh-Dhahariya, Hebron, to Gaza, was revealed by Israeli Haaretz journalist Amira Hass to have in fact been deported from Beersheba, and not the nearby Hebron-area town where he claimed to have been detained.

Hass described the case as "a full-fledged lie that piggybacked on the great media interest, the first of its kind, in the situation of Gaza natives who live in the West Bank."

The Haaretz report went to print on the same day as the Yedioth story, underscoring the continued uncertainty around the actual meaning of the new orders in all sections of society on both sides of the Green Line.

Gaza residents living in the West Bank have said they are terrified, many halting all non-essential travel outside of Area A, for fear they will have their identity cards checked by Israeli forces at one of the hundreds of checkpoints that remain in the West Bank.

Serving as a stark reminder of the possibility of deportation and expulsion is the case of Bethlehem University student Berlanty Azzam, who was pulled out of a shared taxi in October, handcuffed, blindfolded and uncovered as she was pushed through the Erez crossing into the Strip.

Her ordeal, and the lost legal battle to have her return to Bethlehem to finish a month and a half of course work so she could graduate, foreshadowed the military order.

According to Hass' report, Palestinian government officials will shortly set up a joint coordinating committee to work against the military orders, even as uncertainty prevails over just what they mean.