Post by Salem6 on Feb 8, 2004 11:12:02 GMT
By James Rodgers BBC News
As you leave Gaza City heading south, there are fewer and fewer houses. The feeling of relative safety you have in the crowded urban streets slips away.
Barjas al-Waheid lives in the shadow of the settlement
The road is deserted as you approach Netzarim junction.
There's a Palestinian checkpoint. Across the road, the concrete cylinder of an Israeli Army watchtower rises above the scrubland.
Then the road is blocked. Beyond lies the Jewish settlement of Netzarim.
Netzarim stands as a symbol of Israel's strength. Without it, there would be no Israeli presence from the northern edge of the Gaza Strip to the centre.
Security
Much of the world considers the settlements illegal, although Israel disputes this.
For the Palestinians living around it, Netzarim is an object of loathing. Militant groups frequently attack it.
The main road from north to south in the Gaza Strip is closed to Palestinians where it passes the settlement.
The Israeli Army lookout posts which tower up from within it dominate the coastal road.
That too is closed whenever the Army feels the security situation demands it.
Then no Palestinian can move from one end of Gaza to the other.
Orchards around Netzarim have been flattened so that they cannot provide cover for any would-be attackers.
Anyone venturing into the cleared area risks being shot at.
Scarred
Barjas al-Waheidi, a 58-year-old, came to Gaza in 1948 as an infant refugee.
He has lived a stone's throw from Netzarim junction since the mid 1950s.
He watched the settlement being built in the 1970s, after the Israelis occupied the Gaza Strip in the 1967 war.
The back of his house is scarred with bullet holes. He does not dare to go into the fields.
His orange trees are just splintered stumps. "If the settlements don't pull out of the Gaza Strip, there will not be peace at all," he told me, gesturing at the watchtower.
"If I had the chance to talk to the settlers, I would tell them to move from here. This is what I want to tell them, just to leave here."
'Strong'
There has been speculation recently that the Israeli government might one day grant Mr Waheidi's wish.
The evacuation of Netzarim, it is suggested, might be one of the "painful concessions" which the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, has said will be necessary for peace.
The settlers themselves are scornful of such talk.
Their spokesman, Eran Sternberg, praises the residents of Netzarim. "The mood is good, correct, and strong. They stand and know they have to withstand.
"They are strong against the weak talking of Sharon and other politicians."
He points to attacks on the settlement. "Every day shells and Qassam rockets land in Netzarim."
"A lot of houses were hurt. There were direct hits on houses."
Mr Sternberg argues that if Netzarim were not there, the militants would turn their fire on targets inside Israel.
Eran Sternberg says the settlers will not give way in the face of terror
He is dismissive of the idea that life for Palestinians near the settlement is difficult and dangerous.
"We don't agree with these claims. We say that Netzarim is a finger in the dyke. Netzarim is seeing a very high level of terror.
"The moment that Netzarim ceases to exist will be the moment that the terror aimed at Netzarim will be aimed at the kibbutzim near the Gaza Strip."
Mr Waheidi sees this as an excuse for a land grab.
"They don't want to see anybody here.
"They want us to move from here, because they want to expand their settlements. They want more and more land.
"It's the same as what happened in 1948 when we emigrated from our land to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."