Publication
Omar Shaban Ismail · Sama News Agency · 2014
Omar Shaban recalls that Gaza had a seaport before the 1967 occupation and that building a port and an airport is part of the Oslo Accords: Yasser Arafat Airport operated for several years and the port's foundation stone was laid at Sheikh Ijlin with funding from the European Investment Bank. He sees both as symbols of sovereignty, saying a port would create 50,000 jobs, also serve the West Bank and could become a stop for ships between Asia and Europe, with a dry port as in Dubai, Rotterdam and Singapore. He considers security arrangements a Palestinian interest before being an Israeli demand, argues that stability is impossible when per capita income is $40,000 in Israel and under $600 in Gaza, and rejects the claim that a port would separate Gaza from the Palestinian political project.
Omar Shaban, August 2014: a Gaza port and airport are sovereign rights agreed at Oslo; a port would create 50,000 jobs without splitting Gaza off.
Gaza had a seaport before the Israeli occupation in 1967, through which fruits and citrus were exported to all parts of the world, and through which its needed imports also arrived. The construction of a seaport and an airport in Gaza is among the items agreed upon in the Oslo Accords with the Israeli government. Yasser Arafat Airport operated for several years, and the foundation stone for the seaport was indeed laid in the Sheikh Ajleen area, with financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The airport and the seaport, like the flag, the police, the bureaucratic apparatus, and the national sports team, are important symbols of sovereignty, and no coastal state should be denied the right to have its own seaport and airport. There are 30 countries in the world that have no access to the sea and wish they did. The Palestinian state will not exist without Gaza and without its own seaport. Gaza Port is the only maritime gateway for the future Palestinian state. States with maritime access enjoy many competitive advantages compared to landlocked states. Gaza Port is not only necessary for the Gaza Strip; it is even more important for the governorates of the West Bank, which depend on Israeli ports for export and import, with all that this entails in terms of restrictions, security procedures, costs, and additional taxes. Building and operating a seaport in Gaza would create 50,000 job opportunities, trigger a leap in the Palestinian economy, strengthen the economic relationship between the northern and southern governorates, lead to enormous development in labor skills and industry in Palestine, enhance technical and knowledge-based interaction between Palestinian society and the world, and constitute one of the landmarks of urbanization and modernity. Taking into account Gaza’s strategic location near Europe and the Suez Canal, the seaport in Gaza would become a stopover for many giant ships on their route between Asia and Europe. It could be accompanied by a dry port consisting of massive warehouses used by major companies to store their goods temporarily until they are reshipped toward their final destinations, as is the case in the ports of Dubai, Rotterdam, Singapore, and others.
With regard to the Israeli and international demands to apply security conditions to the seaport and the airport, it goes without saying that these demands are, above all, Palestinian demands, as they serve the interests of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian political system. The implementation of security arrangements to ensure that goods, persons, and prohibited materials are not smuggled is a priority for the Palestinian side. There is no airport or seaport in the world without security oversight. No state, whatever it may be, can allow its land and maritime crossings to remain unprotected. The implementation of security arrangements is, first and foremost, a Palestinian interest before it is an Israeli demand.
Lifting the blockade on the Gaza Strip, raising the standard of living for the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, creating thousands of job opportunities for youth, and enabling travel and movement between Gaza and the world is the only way to enhance stability, calm, and peace in the region. Stability cannot take hold in two areas separated by only a few kilometers when per capita income in one of them (Israel) reaches $40,000 annually, while per capita income in the second (the Gaza Strip) falls to less than $600.
From a Palestinian perspective: a seaport in Gaza absolutely does not mean separating Gaza from the Palestinian political project. Such absurd talk is an affront to the positions of the Gaza Strip, which rejected and resisted all attempts at separation in past years. The Gaza Strip rose above, with full patriotism and belonging, the policies of neglect and exclusion practiced by some in recent years.
Topic: Gaza Economy — Gaza seaport · airport · Oslo Accords · sovereignty — Text © Sama News Agency — archived here with attribution to the source. — Original source