Israel has suggested constructing a special rail line linking
the Gaza Strip and West Bank to allow Palestinians in the two
areas easy. The tracks would run from the Erez checkpoint to
the Tarqumiya crossing near Hebron. The idea was approved by
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon before it was presented to the
PA.
The Palestinian coordination team, headed by the Minister for
Civil Affairs Mohammed Dahlan, has insisted that Israel
commit to operating the "safe passage" between the Gaza Strip
and West Bank as provided in all the earlier agreements. The
link is important to the Palestinians, to demonstrate that
the ties between the two parts of the PA will be preserved in
the future.
The "safe passage" between the West Bank and Gaza Strip was
part of the Oslo Accords. Some signs were put up, but it was
never carried out as originally promised. Sharon was against
reviving the concept, but he agreed to the rail passage which
does not entail Palestinian cars on Israeli roads. The "safe
passage" was supposed to allow Palestinians to travel between
Gaza and the Yehuda/Shomron without having to pass through
Israeli security checkpoints and customs authorities.
The main issue up for discussion now is the operation of
crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel after the
disengagement, which is considered the "bottleneck" in
developing the Palestinian economy because of delays in
transporting goods to the ports.
"The crossings must be improved," a senior Israeli source
said yesterday. "That will decide the fate of the economic-
civilian disengagement. In a situation in which we do not
want Palestinian workers in Israel, [the PA] will have to
increase industrial and agricultural production in the Strip,
and the crossings have to operate quickly. With the current
methods, it will be a major disaster."
Another issue that will be raised is the joint "customs
envelope" for Israel and the PA. Israel is under tremendous
international pressure to preserve the joint customs with the
PA, in accordance with the "Paris protocol" attached to the
Oslo Accords. But the Israeli position is that when the
pullout from the Gaza Strip and Philadelphi route is
complete, Israel will not be able to rely on Palestinian
customs inspections.
The solution will apparently be to set up Israeli customs
stations at the crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel,
and inspect the goods there.
