AFX, a subsidiary of AFP, reports that the Gaza pullout “will be the first time that Israel has ever left occupied Palestinian territory.” Unfortunately, AFX forgets previous Israeli troop withdrawals in the 1990s, when hopes were pinned on the Oslo agreements. As journalist David Dolan points out:
In accordance with various Oslo agreements, Israeli forces pulled out of some 80 percent of the Gaza Strip and all of Jericho in 1994, the Bethlehem area, Nablus, Ramallah and other towns in late 1995 and most of Hebron in early 1997… This left Arafat’s autonomous government in control of over 95 percent of the Palestinian population living outside of eastern Jerusalem.
The IDF returned to these areas at different stages in response to Palestinian suicide bombings and terror attacks. And who says Gaza is inherently “Palestinian” anyway? Yoram Ettinger notes a Jewish presence in Gaza dating back to biblical times. The Jewish community in Kfar Darom was evacuated in 1948, following an Egyptian siege.
