U.S. proposal: Int'l observers, expansion at Karni crossing
IMRA ^ | 8-28-06
[After gross failure at Rafah crossing] U.S. proposal: Int'l observers, expansion at Karni crossing
[IMRA: Reality does not appear to be one of the concerns of United States security coordinator in the territories, General Keith Dayton. Israel Radio reports that the proposal would also include an airport.] U.S. proposal: Int'l observers, expansion at Karni crossing By Avi Issacharoff Haaretz 28 August 2006 www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/755387.html
Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed in principle to station international observers at the Karni border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
The idea was proposed by the United States security coordinator in the territories, General Keith Dayton, who presented a detailed proposal last week to PA representatives and to Defense Minister Amir Peretz.
According to Dayton's proposal, a copy of which has been obtained by Haaretz, some 90 international observers would be stationed at Karni, backed by 30 staff assistants. In addition, the terminal - which is the main cargo transit point between Gaza and Israel - would be expanded on both sides of the border.
The observers would be stationed on the Palestinian side of the terminal, and their job would be to ensure that the PA security personnel stationed there do what is necessary to prevent terror attacks in the vicinity. The PA personnel would be drawn mainly from PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' presidential guard, and would receive additional equipment and training in order to improve their performance. Currently, several different PA security services are responsible for security at Karni.
While the observers would be European, like those already stationed at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, American officials would supervise them.
Dayton's plan calls for an investment of some $19 million to train and equip the PA troops and expand the terminal, and he therefore intends to present it at a conference of donor nations that assist the PA, which is slated to take place in Sweden on September 2.
Karni is Gaza's economic lifeline. According to Salim Abu Safiyeh, the PA official in charge of security at Gaza's border crossings, some 200,000 Gazan employees depend on Karni for their livelihood: The raw materials that enter Gaza via Karni are essential to keep dozens of small factories operating, and the same holds for the exports that leave Gaza through this crossing. However, due to repeated threats of terror attacks at the terminal, Israel has frequently shut it down, resulting in a virtual cessation of exports and a sharp reduction in imports of raw materials. That, said Abu Safiyeh, has been a major factor in the collapse of Gaza's economy.
Under Dayton's plan, some 400 trucks a day would leave Gaza through the expanded terminal, up from almost none at present.
While Abbas has agreed to the plan, Palestinian sources warned that there are likely to be some difficulties in implementing it. For instance, they said, the terminal's proposed expansion will require expropriating privately owned Palestinian land, whose owners are currently abroad and therefore difficult to locate.
Similarly, while Israeli security officials also welcomed the plan, terming it an opportunity to both improve Gaza's economy and strengthen Abbas' position in the Palestinian political arena, they warned that Israel will not agree to implement it until Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was kidnapped to Gaza in June, is released.
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"Karni is Gaza's economic lifeline."
One of the most puzzling things about the Palestinians is why they shoot themselves in the same foot all the time. They block their own progress. It is they who suffer more than anyone else for their irresponsible actions.
When you think that they could have had a state of their own any time during the past sixty years, but that they prefer to go on disrupting things you realise that their aim is to keep their people unbalanced so that the urge to finish Israel off is forever present.