Court asked: Israel still 'occupying' Gaza?

Israel's Supreme Court must weigh the country's security concerns against Palestinians' commercial livelihood.

By Joshua Mitnick | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the February 26, 2007 edition

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TEL AVIV - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week held up improvements in Gaza's only commercial link to the outside world as evidence of progress in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

But Sunday the Karni crossing at the Israel-Gaza border became the focus of a dispute in Israel's Supreme Court between human rights groups and the government. At issue: Does Israel have a responsibility to alleviate delays – lasting up to three months – in imported goods?

The debate highlights Gaza's murky legal status and whether Israel's control over the impoverished strip's key access points still determines it as an occupying power, even though it withdrew troops a year and a half ago.

The Supreme Court has yet to rule on the petition, submitted when Israel had shut down most crossings amid a military offensive there.

Human rights groups say Israel exercises an "invisible hand" in Gazans' daily lives because it can regulate commercial goods coming or leaving the territory. "The only way Gaza residents can receive a crate of milk ... and a shipment of medicines is through Israeli-controlled crossings,' " says Sari Bashi, the director of Gisha, an Israeli human rights group that cosponsored the petition. "Only Israel can fulfill this obligation to the residents of Gaza."

According to a Palestinian commercial group, the Karni crossing was open an average of five hours a day in December, despite Israel's commitment under a US-brokered accord on borders and access to ensure "continuous" operationover the terminal. Some 182 trucks carrying goods have been allowed in each day in the last half of 2006, compared with nearly twice that number in February 2006.

Still, both sides agree that commercial traffic has recovered in recent weeks – prompting Ms. Rice to cite the flow of goods at Karni to counter an impression that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was stuck.

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