"To understand why Israel's policy towards severing ties between Gaza
and the West Bank became more formalised and political
post-disengagement, it is necessary to recall the reasons for this
strategic redeployment in the first place.
First, the
withdrawal was aimed at freezing the peace process, preventing
Palestinian statehood. In the words of a senior adviser to then prime
minister Ariel Sharon, disengagement from Gaza supplied "the amount of
formaldehyde that's necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians".
The second strategic aim was to consolidate the colonisation of the
West Bank. Sharon told the Knesset that "whoever wishes to preserve the
large Israeli settlement blocs under our control forever ... must
support the disengagement plan". Taking settlers out of Gaza, he
affirmed, meant that Israel could focus its "efforts" on areas like
"Greater Jerusalem" and the "settlement blocs".
This is the
context in which to understand how Israel has sought to tear up the Oslo
commitment to keeping Gaza and the West Bank as "one territorial unit"."
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