Israel's Unilateral Disengagement Plan

The Israeli Unilateral Disengagement Plan was carried out beginning on 17th August 2005 and was completed soon after on 12th September 2005. The Plan consisted of the evacuation of 25 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, which had been established illegally over the past 35 years (since Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 1967). Many Jewish settlements still exist in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where there are over 400,000 Jewish settlers, and are being expanded as a programme of the Israeli government as we speak. These settlements constitute a serious breach of international law. Four settlements were evacuated in the northern West Bank and 21 in the Gaza Strip (see map of evacuated settlements). These settlements were lived in by an estimated 8,500 Jewish settlers. The Disengagement Plan also included the redeployment of Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) along the borders of the Gaza Strip.

There are positive aspects of the Disengagement that should be taken into account: A large part of the land in the Gaza Strip, which was previously inhabited by Jewish settlers and controlled by the Israeli army, was evacuated and left for the Palestinians to whom the land originally belonged. There are no longer Israeli checkpoints dividing up the Gaza Strip which has greatly facilitated internal movement around the Strip.

Nevertheless, part of the Disengagement arrangements was an agreement according to which Egypt would help the Palestinian National Authority to remove the rubble of the demolished settler houses and facilities. One year after the disengagement, Israel still does not comply with this agreement and Palestinians simply cannot utilise the evacuated land for development purposes as was hoped.

Contrary to insistent Israeli claims that it is no longer legally responsible for the Gaza Strip since it has allegedly ‘ended’ its occupation, the facts on the ground reinforce what Al Mezan, as well as significant legal opinions by international experts, has been emphasizing: that the legal status of the Gaza Strip has not changed and it must still be recognized as an occupied territory with all the concurrent obligations on the Occupying Power, Israel. The Disengagement Plan was a step by which Israel has attempted to relieve itself of its obligations with respect to international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Israel has consistently refused to acknowledge its status as an occupying power, in order to shirk the legal obligations imposed upon an Occupier. Israel’s Disengagement Plan represents a further attempt to avoid these responsibilities by advancing the claim that the evacuation of Gaza settlements and the redeployment of the Israeli army have ended the occupation of the Gaza Strip. This claim is patently false, as evidenced by the text of the Plan document itself. The document states explicitly that Israel will retain control over the borders of the Gaza Strip, as well as Gaza’s airspace and coastline. Israel will also continue to claim the right to both pre-emptive and reactive security operations within the Gaza Strip.

While the Disengagement was warmly received at the international level, Al Mezan believes that the Plan must be viewed within the context of broader Israeli policy towards the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), as well as with reference to the explicit terms of the document itself. In addition to the control Israel has maintained over Gaza, the Disengagement from the Strip cannot be viewed separately from Israeli activity in the West Bank. As the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip made clear, the two locations constitute a ‘single territorial unit.’ Thus the superficially positive withdrawal from Gaza must be viewed alongside the continued construction of Israel’s Separation Wall and the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

It should be emphasized that during the same period of time as the Disengagement, the overall number of Jewish settlers in the OPT increased, since some 15,400 of them settled in newly expanded settlements across the West Bank, and have since continued to do so at alarming rates. In addition, since the Disengagement Gaza’s border crossings have been consistently closed, hampering economic and humanitarian movement of goods, as well as movement of people, and travel between the Gaza Strip and West Bank has become practically impossible; the siege on the Gaza Strip has tightened and residents are constantly terrorized by Israeli missile shelling and sonic booms. Israeli attacks on Palestinians have extra-judicially killed over 336* Palestinians in Gaza since the Disengagement, at least 61 of them children.

Thus viewed, the Unilateral Disengagement Plan is clearly an Israeli attempt to divest itself of the 1.4 million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, while strengthening its control over the numerous, sprawling settlements in the West Bank. Such an aim runs contrary to both international law and the agreements that govern relations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The contents of these documents make it clear that Israel remains an Occupying Power after the Disengagement and must thus uphold its responsibilities as an Occupying Power. In the long run, however, unilateral and disingenuous actions such as the withdrawal must be replaced by processes and measures based on justice and respect for international law. Only then will a fair and lasting solution be found to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

This campaign intends to raise awareness on the fact that Gaza is still occupied, and that the Israeli occupation of the territories needs to end as soon as possible. The international community must act more decisively to ensure this occurs.

* As of August 2006 according to Al Mezan’s statistics.

Also see the following documents for more information:
- The Legal and Economic Implications of the Disengagement
Al Mezan report on the consequences of the Disengagement (August 2005)
- Israel’s official Disengagement document
Official Israeli document of its plans and intentions with regards to the Disengagement.
- Gisha Briefing: Disengagement danger!
Briefing on the dangers of disengagement and Israel’s separation of West Bank and Gaza Strip.
- EMHRN press release, 21 October 2005 “The Gaza Strip Is Still Occupied”
- Digest on the impacts of the imposed closure on Gaza Strip, 30 days after the implementation of the Israeli Unilateral Disengagement Plan: Gaza Strip turns into a large prison (Arabic only)