The Special Envoy for the UN Human Rights Commission, John Dugard, recently stated that the Gaza ‘disengagement’ will not mean an end to the Israeli military occupation of Gaza. The main reason is Israel’s insistence on maintaining control of all the borders, including the territorial waters off the Gaza coast and supremacy in the airspace above Palestinian territory. This week, however, Israel announced that it is holding negotiations with Egypt to cede control over Gaza’s southern border. In cooperation with Israel, the Egyptian foreign ministry announced on Sunday that it plans to deploy up to 750 soldiers on the Palestinian side. The main questions are why are the Palestinians not able to have more authority within their own borders after the 'disengagement', and why is Israel making the decisions for the Palestinians after their withdrawal?

The crucial difference between Palestinian independence and continued Israeli military occupation cannot be blurred so easily. Israel has reverted back to the period prior to the series of negotiations in the 1990s and refuses to negotiate directly with Palestinians on issues that concern Palestinians more than anyone else. Although there are contacts between both the Israelis and the Egyptians with Palestinian National Authority (PNA) representatives on the border issue, Israel’s military might and its full backing by the U.S. are the essential realities of the present situation. The ‘disengagement’ is a unilateral act. The Israelis have full veto rights; Palestinians have none; and the Egyptians have a limited say, which is as likely to be conducive to Israeli as to Palestinian interests.

The Israeli government announced on May 23 that it is ready to hand over control of Gaza’s southern border to Egypt a “few months” after its own pullback from illegal settlements and bases inside Gaza, slated for mid-August, on the precondition that Egypt stop all arms smuggling into the Palestinian territory. There is no doubt about who is calling the shots here.

Indeed, Israel’s foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, said that Israel wants guarantees that Palestinian resistance groups would not use Gaza after the Israeli withdrawal as “a launching pad for attacks” against Israel. But what about guarantees for Palestinians? Over 2,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of whom were innocent civilians, have been killed in Gaza by Israeli attacks over the last four-and-a-half years.

It is obvious that Israel is not considering reciprocating with anything even approaching guarantees for Palestinians in Gaza. Their lives are worth so little to Israel that it recently decided to reintroduce its practice of extrajudicial assassinations in Gaza in direct breach of the February 8 Sharm el-Sheikh ceasefire agreement between Israel and the PNA.

Ergo: the Israeli military occupation of Gaza will continue after the Israeli ‘disengagement’. Israelis can attack Palestinians, but not the other way around. Foreign troops will continue to control the minutest details of Palestinian lives. Israeli Air Force F-16s, helicopters, and drones armed with bombs and missiles will continue to circle over Palestinian heads, and there is no telling where or when they will strike again.