Gaza's falling wall changes Middle East map for ever

Up until now Mubarak has appeared simply unwilling to do anything to stop the steady stream of citizens from Gaza flocking into his country to stock up on goods that they have long been denied by the Israeli blockade.

Now, however, despite pressure from Israel and the US, he appears to be going further than ever and actively endorsing the actions of Gaza's citizens.

North Sinai Governor Ahmed Abdel-Hamid said that "Palestinians will continue to cross until they get all their needs of commodities and foodstuffs" in response to an Israeli lockdown on the impoverished territory of 1.5 million.

Egyptian security forces have been "instructed to facilitate the Palestinians' passage and guide them to the places where they could get their needs," Abdel-Hamid said.

He said he was coordinating with the Ministries of Social Solidarity and Industry "to secure large amounts of commodities and products to meet the needs of the Palestinians in the country" because many Egyptian shops were now out of stock.

The United Nations said at least 700,000 Gazans -- nearly half the territory's population of 1.5 million -- have poured into Egypt to stock up on desperately needed supplies since the heavy steel wall was blasted open on Tuesday.

Like everyone else I presumed that the wall breach would be a one day wonder and that the citizens of Gaza would soon be herded back into their open prison. However, as we enter day four it's impossible not to think that, having tasted freedom, the people of Gaza will simply not accept this Israeli imposition upon them when Israel decides she wants to further punish these people for crimes that they did not commit.

There's a very interesting article by Peter Beaumont in the Guardian which asks whether or not Gaza's falling wall will herald in a new phase in the Middle East.

They came and went in lorries and gas tankers, in flatbed trucks loaded with cattle and sheep, in coaches and mini-buses, loaded by the dozen in the backs of trucks, all shuttling across Gaza's southern border. Four days ago they went on foot like refugees, but yesterday for the first time the trucks drove through and it felt like an unstoppable momentum had been reached.

They carried generators and goats, diesel and huge piles of carrots and cabbages. But most of all they carried the message that Israel's long blockade of Gaza is over. 'I want to get some cheese,' says Ameera Ahmad, after crossing the border from Gaza into Egypt yesterday. 'And honey. Look, crisps! I haven't seen a bag of crisps for months.'

So walls fall down. Not only physically, blasted down on Gaza's border with Egypt last week with dynamite and cutting torches, but in the mind as well.

The four short days since Hamas blew down the six-metre metal border wall built by Israeli soldiers before the withdrawal of Israeli settlers and troops has forged a confusing new reality on the ground. What first was being treated as a holiday from the oppressive conditions of Gaza under Israeli siege, by yesterday was taking on the attributes of an entitlement - one for long refused.

He makes a very interesting point regarding the feeling of entitlement. The simple truth, as Gandhi illustrated in India with regard to British rule, is that the Israelis cannot continue to hold one and a half million people prisoners unless those same people acquiesce in their imprisonment.

Once those people have tasted freedom, once they have breached the wall and not been instantly driven back, then the size of the injustice that has been perpetrated against them becomes not an abstract notion, but a cold clear fact.

700,000 people have crossed that border in the last four days. Some of them for the very first time:

Ameera, 24, texts her husband to ask if there is anything he wants brought back from Egypt. 'Oh!', she says suddenly in a quiet, happy voice, surveying a pretty vista of open fields, without walls or boundaries that cannot be crossed without risk. 'This is my first time out of Gaza.'

Once they have tasted life outside of the prison, they will forever know what lies on the other side of the wall. And it would take quite an army to hold back 700,000 people who know that their imprisonment is unjust.

What I viewed four days ago as a wonderful day out at the shops for the people of Gaza is assuming a whiff of permanence. Things might simply never be the same again. If the people of Gaza move in sufficient numbers then no army in the world would dare try to face the international outrage that would accompany any attempt to lock them back in their jail.

Perhaps Mubarak is realising this new reality.

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Tags: Mubarak, Olmert, Abbas, Israel, Palestine, Gaza