Gaza and the West Bank: Israel’s present and future penal colonies
The deep background of the recent conflict is Israel’s post-Oslo military plan for total control of the Palestinian majority areas. Its pretext might be a war on terror; its underlying logic is to reduce the population of the occupied territories to destitution. From the consequences of this nightmare prospect, there is no escape except full Israeli withdrawal.

The new stage of Israel’s ‘separation’ can no longer be compared to the apartheid system in South Africa. As Ronnie Kasrils, South Africa’s Minister of Water Affairs, said in an interview with Al Ahram Weekly (28 March–3 April 2002): “the South African apartheid regime never engaged in the sort of repression Israel is inflicting on the Palestinians.” We are witnessing the daily invisible killing of the sick and wounded who are being deprived of medical care, the weak who cannot survive in the new conditions of poverty, and those who are bound to reach starvation.

Nevertheless, the public debate in Israel revolves around questions of efficiency. Is it possible to stop terror by such methods? Even if so, is it permitted? Is this what we (Israelis) want to be?
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