The Gaza disengagement was just an Israeli smokescreen to hide extremely sinister developments in the West Bank, writes Deborah Stokes "Facts on the ground" is a tactical term used by some Israeli settlers and right-wing activists seeking to increase Israeli presence in the West Bank, to describe a situation, which, once created, due to its physical existence cannot be ignored. Thus, in the case of the West Bank, settlements which may initially have been illegal cannot be ignored once they exist and since many have, with the complicity of, or direct/indirect investment from the Israeli government, grown and expanded, their sheer physical presence and size makes it increasingly difficult to dismantle or destroy without provoking mass protests from a sizeable section of the Israeli public. The word "settlement" is misleading; it conjures up images of pioneers living in small hastily-erected communities cooking over log-fires and while this may be the case in a few examples, the over-riding impression of Ariel, Ma'aleh Adumim and other settlements is of large established towns with integrated infrastructures and transport systems which no Israeli government, under no matter how much international pressure is going to pull down. Sharon, who has always been a military strategist before being a politician, is playing games not only with the heads of foreign governments but also with the media. By appearing to bow to international pressure by disengaging from Gaza and a few minor settlements in the West Bank of little historical or religious importance to the majority of Jews, he has succeeded in giving foreign heads of states the impression that he is interested in peace. Outsiders, unable to see what is going on in the West Bank are also being persuaded that this process of "disengagement" from settlements may continue. This is far from the case. While the majority of the world's news organisations were in Gaza reporting on the pull-out, momentarily distracted from expansion of the settlements near Jerusalem, construction of the remaining segments of the wall which will eventually separate East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, was continuing at a frenzied pace out of the camera's eye. The UN estimates that at least 55,000 East Jerusalem residents will be cut off from family, friends, work, hospitals and schools once the Separation Barrier is completed in the next few months. In Abu Diss, an East Jerusalem suburb, the last gaps in the wall are being filled in, making what used to be a 10-15 minute journey to Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem now an hour or more for those Palestinians lucky enough to have Jerusalem residency permits or passes. On a recent visit I witnessed young and old alike climbing through a tiny gap in the wall near Abu Diss, if their permits were approved of by a 19-year-old soldier. The daily humiliation of ordinary Palestinians by an apartheid system means that resentment in the West Bank against Israelis will only increase, leading to a renewal of the vicious cycle of indiscriminate violence that has damaged the economies and psyches of both societies so much since the outbreak of the second Intifada and before. An already humiliated Palestinian population will become increasingly desperate if their fragile economic situation continues to decline and they are submitted to any more political or psychological injustice. Since Israel will refuse to dismantle the larger settlements in the West Bank (none of the current political parties either want or dare to do this) and since, despite in-fighting between the PA, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other factions, Palestinian groups are united in one thing: wanting control over Palestinian land east of the 1967 Green Line (at the very least) plus East Jerusalem as the capital of the West Bank, the future does not look too optimistic. While Gazans celebrated Israeli withdrawal the response in the West Bank was far more muted. The Gaza pull- out, while a step in the right direction, has also created false hopes and expectations amongst the international community which will not be fulfilled. The relative quiet, beneficial to both Israelis and Palestinians, during the pull-out is unlikely to last. If the Israelis continue imprisoning towns and communities within the noose of the wall Palestinians will lose their patience and extremist factions will begin coordinated suicide operations again. The main reasons for the pull-out on the part of Israel were mainly demographic; the Israelis are increasingly concerned that they will be outnumbered by Arabs within the Green Line in a few years -- by disengaging from Gaza they will ensure a Jewish majority in their state for a longer period of time. The area was also becoming an expensive security nightmare putting the lives of soldiers defending small groups of settlers at risk, a policy unpopular with a large section of the Israeli public. And, finally, the pull-out was undertaken in response to pressure from the US and international community. Sharon, who puzzled everyone both abroad and within Israel with his volte-face with regard to settlement policy in Gaza is perhaps also acting for personal reasons; he is enjoying the attention and congratulations lauded on him by foreign heads of state. He is no longer being portrayed as the racist he is, who was instrumental in the establishment of many settlements on Palestinian land -- the largest settlement Ariel is named after him. Eager for a place in the history books he has succeeded in duping a large number of people that he is suddenly a "man of peace". Those who have never travelled within the West Bank tend to imagine it as a unified geographical entity. This is far from the case; the construction of roads for the exclusive use of settlers which criss-cross the area and Israeli strategic control over the Jordan Valley and major water sources within the West Bank together with the ever-growing massive concrete separation wall which is encircling towns and communities and virtually imprisoning people means that "facts on the ground" are indeed making it increasingly impossible for Palestinians to regain control of land east of the 1967 Green Line that should be theirs.
