Fruits of peace in Gaza become political frustration, poverty

GAZA's border has solidified - on one side. The Israelis have now established a proper frontier post at Erez, where they run foreign visitors's names through a computer before letting them walk across the 100 odd metres of no man's land to the Palestinian side.

Palestinians bearing the required identity cards must queue for hours to go and come, then make the crossing within a narrow railed walkway which runs beside the broad road. For them peace has brought constriction and confinement rather than the freedom of movement and jobs in Israel "proper" specified in the accords with Israel.

At mid point in the empty quarter are two dogs, one small and brown and the other a playful white pup who fancies ankles. They are the guardians of Gaza for there are no others. At the Palestinian checkpoint I signed in on a leaf torn from a child's exercise book because the soldier meant to man the register had gone off for coffee or shopping or ... whatever. It was an unceremonious entrance to the Palestinian slum state.

The main road into the Strip is closed, they say for repairs. Perhaps the pool of sewage straddling the broken pavement beyond the soft drinks plant has, at last, attracted the attention of the authorities. The car dodges along the sandy byways of a detour through Jabaliya refugee camp, now a multi storeyed breeze block suburb of Gaza City.

Walking along the road is a tiny girl wearing a stiffly starched green school smock, her hair in braids bound with white bows; a donkey cart carrying a load of iron reinforcing rods jogs by. Its driver is perhaps to or 12, a wage earner rather than a schoolboy.

Holding court at the Samer Commercial Agency, a leading importer of cars, located on Oniar Mukhtar Street, the main thoroughfare of Gaza City, was Mrs Rawia Shawa, one of the three women elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council. Mrs Shawa, a tall, handsome businesswoman and newspaper columnist, believes 1997 could be "a turning point for the Middle East" if Europe would play the "role of justice".

The US President, Mr Clinton, would have to be pressured by Europe to exert his influence to compel Israel to meet its commitments, she said. "We want real peace based on UN resolutions" (242 and 338) calling for Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967. "But Israel claims it cannot withdraw because this will endanger its settlers. These settlers are illegal. Why should we have to provide them with security and get nothing? Neither land nor security, Mrs Shawa says.

The next stop was the Abu Khadra complex where several ministries of the Palestinian Authority (PA) are located. Mr Hassan Asfour, one of the trio of Palestinian officials who negotiated the first, secret Oslo Accord and now serves as Coordinator of the Peace Negotiations, sits in a sleek office with a uniformed guard outside.

Mr Asfour told The Irish Times that "Europe must now create a mechanism to translate its excellent political position" in support of Palestinian self determination and statehood "into actions on the ground ... Very little of the Oslo Accords has been implemented. Major aspects remain outstanding. The whole economic agreement (signed at Paris in April 1994) has been ignored totally. Israel has not redeployed its troops out of the villages and lands of the West Bank. This should have been completed in stages by June and September."

The physical fabric of Gaza has seriously deteriorated in the past year. The PA can do little to arrest or reverse this trend because it is more than $100 million (£59.52 million) in debt. Unemployment in the Strip has risen to 60 per cent and the per capita income has fallen in real terms by 38 per cent since 1992. Wages equally about 60 per cent of household bills, forcing Gazans to sell whatever they can to make ends meet.

For Gaza peace has brought political frustration and poverty rather than self determination and prosperity.