The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has faced bitter opposition from both within his Likud party and from other right-wing forces. The Israeli army estimates as many as 3,000 ultrarightists have made their way to the Gaza settlements to protest the withdrawal in spite of a military cordon blocking access to the area to nonresidents.

The Palestinian Authority, which has enforced a six-month-long cease-fire with Tel Aviv, is deploying some 7,500 military personnel of its own in Gaza during the evacuation to prevent armed actions against Israeli forces by the rival Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations. Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has called for low-key celebrations of the Israeli pullout in order to “confirm to the world that we deserve a state.” Tens of thousands have already rallied in Gaza in anticipation of the return of some of the land to Palestinians that was seized by Israeli forces in 1967.

The disengagement plan calls for the removal of all 8,500 Israeli settlers from Gaza, and 500 settlers from four locations in the West Bank. About 1.3 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip, and their resistance to Israeli control of the densely populated area has proven a security headache for the Israeli rulers.

Under the cover of this plan, Tel Aviv has escalated its offensive against groups organizing armed resistance to the Israeli occupation. It has built more than one-third of a 400-mile wall, annexing a section of the West Bank, which includes the largest Israeli settlement blocs.

The Israeli rulers’ decision to move ahead with disengagement is a product of their inability to crush the Palestinian struggle, which remains at the heart of the class struggle in Israel and historic Palestine. At the same time, Tel Aviv’s moves take advantage of the exhaustion of the Palestine Liberation Organization as a force capable of leading a revolutionary struggle for Palestinian national liberation. Instead, the PLO has focused on finding an accommodation with Tel Aviv and Washington.

Rightist opponents of disengagement in Israel have massed protests of as large as 150,000 in the weeks before the withdrawal. Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resigned from the cabinet in protest a week ahead of the evacuation of the settlements, charging the government with giving up territory without receiving sufficient Palestinian concessions in return.

Meanwhile, Sharon has made clear that the evacuation of less than 5 percent of the settler population is a step to consolidate Israeli domination, not toward Palestinian control over a larger territory leading to a sovereign Palestinian state. In an interview on Israeli television August 10, Sharon said, “I will not negotiate on the subject of Jerusalem. The [settlement] blocs will remain territorially linked to the State of Israel. At the same time, there will be no return of Palestinian refugees to Israel.” Tel Aviv will also maintain control over all border crossings into Gaza.  
 
 
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