JERUSALEM - Sometimes, the devil's in the details. And sometimes, when the
Israeli security forces make you practice shot put in an X-ray machine rather
than cross into Gaza, the smallest details are all there is to work with.
Erez border crossing, a modern steel and glass construction, a jewel set in the
northern part of the long, grey concrete wall between Israel and Gaza, is the
principal Israeli crossing point for people going to and from Gaza, and has
been closed for more than a year. On Sunday, it opened for business again, as
part of Israel's ceasefire agreement last Thursday with Hamas, reached after
several months of three-way talks between Israeli officials, Palestinian
delegations and Egyptian mediators.
But the crossing is not open for much business. The list of people
given permission to leave Israel from this point is very select: diplomats,
humanitarian aid workers, and journalists who have been through the 15-day
screening process to receive an Israeli press card. I was not among this
distinguished company, but I thought I would try my luck anyway, along with a
couple of other journalists without the necessary paperwork, or the patience to
wait more than two weeks for the right document.
And, while the brusque immigration officer phoned her superiors to confirm what
both she and we already knew - we would not be getting into Gaza this day, or
any day soon - I noticed what looked like bullet holes in the big glass wall
that faced back to Israel. Each hole, a perfect cylinder, was framed by a
large, intricate and ornate spiderweb pattern where the glass had fractured and
cracked. When probed, an Israeli official with an M-16 told us it was caused by
"shrapnel". He would not elaborate, and was unable to accurately identify the
incident independently.
But this was not the detail that caught my attention. Rather, my eye was drawn
by the presence of a repair crew of five or six men who were cheerfully and
laboriously replacing each of the many damaged glass panels. This, to me,
signified something very important.
It seemed to indicate that the Israelis are in fact serious about maintaining
the ceasefire. If not, why go to all the trouble and expense of fixing up a
building which is only going to be in use for a few days anyway? It is a sign -
albeit a small, relatively insignificant sign - of commitment, of a level of
long-term thinking. It is a sign that the Israelis are expecting enough numbers
of people through the crossing to warrant its repair. And it is a sign that
they are not expecting any events which will crack the glass yet again - such
as an assault of Gaza.
But I wouldn't bet my house on any of that, or much money either. Israelis are
masters of the intelligence game and undoubtedly play it far better than I.
However, in the absence of anything other than the usual bravado from parties
of the conflict, small signs are all we really have to go on.
This would be good news for Hamas, provided that they or one of the many
splinter groups do not break the truce themselves. But remember - even with the
lifting of some restrictions, they are still in a worse position than they were
before Israel imposed its blockade. Two steps forward and only one step back,
perhaps, from Israel.
We were still waiting for immigration to come back to us when one of the
photographers took a quick snap of the shrapnel damage. All of a sudden, he was
surrounded by half a dozen irate Israeli officials, who, after interrogating
him as to what his motives could possibly be for such an apparently flagrant
breach of security, forced him to delete the pictures. And then decided, as
result, that we had all become "a security problem".
Herded into a holding pen - still all very modern and clean - we waited briefly
while our possessions were searched and then we received orders through a
speaker in the wall to go through one by one to what looked and acted like a
vertical CAT-scan machine. In there, we each had to pull various ridiculous
poses to ensure the machine was able to scan our body completely - hands above
our heads in victory (or surrender); body poised with one arm behind the head
as if preparing for shot put.
In this time, all the Israeli officials were behind layers of metal walls and
bullet-proof glass. We were escorted by Said, who carried out his orders
� "Said, open the gate. Said, let that one through. Not like that Said.
Come on, Said" - with a resigned air. He was a Palestinian, he told me, and
went home every night to Gaza. He wouldn't say much more about anything, but it
struck me as strange that the Israelis were more than happy to let a loyal
Palestinian worker brave the "security problem" that we represented, and all
the possible risks that came with that, while they remained in safety.
It is unlikely the Israelis ever considered us a genuine threat. Rather, it
seemed they were trying to scare us off, to prevent us from returning. And
certainly, their bureaucratic practices are designed to prevent journalists
from being able to cover events in Gaza as they happen. The question which that
raises is what exactly are they trying to hide? For this should be a great time
for Israel to welcome journalists in Gaza - they are, after all, lifting
restrictions, surely a perfect time for some good press.
It could be that they don't want the world to see the humanitarian disaster
that Israel has, for the most part, created in Gaza in the year-long violence
that has raged since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip last summer, after
winning an election in 2006.
But that seems unlikely - everyone is able, if not exactly encouraged, to see
the humanitarian disasters in the West Bank. A more likely scenario is that
Israel wants to hide an increasingly unpleasant reality: that, while, the
situation there remains desperate, the Hamas government in Gaza has governed
effectively, bringing relative order, control and stability to an area that
Fatah could not tame. Hamas has been a success. And that means that the Israeli
blockade failed.
In its defense, Israel has promised to lift border restrictions further should
the ceasefire continue. This should make it easier for journalists to gain
access, and report accurately on events in Gaza and Israeli involvement. It
would also mean the investment in all those glass panels would not be wasted.
Simon Allison is a student of international affairs, with emphasis on the
Middle East, currently based in Cairo, Egypt.
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