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January
2009
The Rafah
border crossing has sparked endless controversy since the start of the
Israeli attacks on Gaza
on December 27. Egypt’s
point-blank refusal to open the border is interpreted by many in the Arab
world as a gesture of support for Israel’s
war on Gaza, mainly to weaken Hamas, which has
ties to Egypt’s
outlawed but often tolerated Muslim Brotherhood. The visit of the Israeli
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni a few hours before the attacks confirmed, in the
minds of many, the doubts that Egypt might have been notified, turning
scepticism into certainty about Egypt’s position on the war. Demonstrations
were held outside Egyptian embassies in almost every Arab capital and many
European cities.
The
Egyptian government is furious at the accusations and stated that Egypt’s
support for the Palestinian cause is indisputable. President Hosni Mubarak
says opening the crossing will deepen the divide between Gaza
and the West Bank. He also described the
opening of the border as an “Israeli trap”, and that once Egypt opened the crossing unconditionally, Israel would go ahead and close its borders
with Gaza.
Leaving
this political storm behind, I travelled to the border town of Rafah to see for myself
what the people who live closest to the crossing, and the war, think about
the conflict, and how it affects them. An air of gloom and doom hung over the
small town. All the streets leading to the borders were blocked by the army
and it seemed that the only people on the streets were there for necessity.
Under the
terms of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, the agreed border separated the
then-Israeli occupied Gaza from Egypt by cutting the town of Rafah into two halves. However, both sides
of the town still share a lot in common, and many still have extended family
on the other side of the border. And with Palestinian kufiyas wrapped
around most necks and people speaking a more Palestinian than Egyptian
dialect, the people of Egyptian Rafah still share a lot with their
Palestinian neighbours, despite the divide.
“What is
happening in Gaza
is a shame. I can’t describe how I feel, but I always pray for my brothers in
Gaza,” said
Ahmed Abdel-Hamid, a shopkeeper in Egyptian Rafah. “The effect of the war on
us is dire; the ground shakes under us every time Israel sends a bomb. We are
afraid and we feel that death is near.”
The
opening of the crossing has economic benefits and brings money into Egyptian
Rafah. When Gazans destroyed part of the border wall on January 23, 2008,
tens of thousands of people from the Strip flooded into Rafah and the nearby
town of Arish
to buy supplies that were scarce due to the siege on their city. The hole in
the wall meant Gazans could buy up a couple of weeks of supplies and cash for
the people of Egyptian Rafah people. It was reported that everything was sold
for up to triple its normal market price.
Ayman,
our driver in Rafah, described it best when he said that the government
should open the border because the Gazans desperately need supplies and
Rafah’s people are desperate for money. Moreover, with the border open
permanently, this kind of profiteering could be eliminated, enabling Gazans
to get their supplies at decent prices and generating a constant stream of
business for locals in Rafah.
The
general fear that if the border is open, Gazans, out of desperation, will
flood into Sinai and sound the death knell for the Strip. The Egyptians of
Rafah and Arish disagree and believe that Gazans will get what they need and
head back to their homes because they do not want to leave Palestine and their land. “Gazans are
attached to their land and don’t want to leave Palestine. If they had the intention to
leave, they would’ve done so a long time ago,” argues Abdel-Hamid.
It seems
that the people of the border are more relaxed than the Egyptian government
about opening the crossing. They are convinced it won’t have the serious
consequences Cairo
claims and fears. Egyptian officials may be project on the Gazans what they
would do if they were in their shoes. Most would think, and no one would
blame them, that it is wise to escape the violence that has already claimed
more than 800 Gazan lives, but this is not necessarily how people who have
fought a lifetime for their land behave.
Since
opening the border can save the lives of hundreds of women and children by
letting people temporarily out of the war zone and letting doctors in, and
since the people who are going to be directly affected by it on the Egyptian
side are actually calling for it, why not just open it up?
Egypt’s position on this war is very similar
to its position on the Lebanon
war two years ago, when Mubarak called Hizbullah’s action an “adventure”,
accusing the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah of dragging his whole nation
into war. History is repeating itself and Mubarak is also accusing Hamas of
being adventurous and dragging Gaza
into war. Blaming the war entirely on Hamas is an opinion only shared by
Mubarak, Bush and Israeli politicians. It makes a lot of sense, since Egypt’s leadership, the US and Israel share the same enemy,
militant Islamic groups.
My
argument has always been that Islamic groups are hindering political reform
in Egypt
because their presence is used by secular regimes as an excuse to become more
oppressive. But what the United States,
Egypt and Israel are
doing is creating unprecedented support for these groups on the Egyptian
street, which will only lead to more political complexity and turmoil. Egypt’s regime should offer a viable
alternative to what Hamas and Hizbullah offer, and a good move will be
opening the crossing to reduce the effect of the war and siege on Gaza.
Osama
Diab, a Cairo-based journalist, visited, in the second week of January 2009,
the Egyptian side of Rafah during the Israeli offensive.
©Copyright
2009 – Osama Diab.
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