Waiting for Shalit... and a thousand other prisoners
Karl Schembri
Known for their black humour, Palestinians in Gaza joke openly about Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been in captivity in the besieged strip since June 2006.
Young and old quip they have seen the Israeli sergeant directing traffic at a Gaza junction as a Hamas policeman.
“He’s in my basement,” a young graduate from Gaza City said, recounting how Israelis regularly bombard Gaza with SMSes and leaflets dropped from fighter planes with messages urging Palestinians to give any information about Shalit’s whereabouts for a US$ 2 million reward.
Another one told me that if Hamas were smart, they would marry him to a Gazan woman, or maybe to four.
“That way he will have children and we would have much more captives to bargain with,” he said.
Palestinians themselves recognise the absurdity of the situation. Since Shalit was captured in an audacious cross-border raid more than three years ago, he has become a world celebrity, known in the four corners of the world as the young Israeli who was “kidnapped” by Islamist fighters.
Never mind that he was actually likely captured during a military operation, but the fact that there are thousands of faceless and nameless Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails shows just how unbalanced the whole equation between Israel and Palestinians is.
The last week has seen a total frenzy of conflicting reports about the negotiations between Israel and Hamas that would lead to Shalit’s swap with 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Many Gazans speak of the period “before Shalit” and “after Shalit”, to contrast the times before and after the blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza. Many people resent the abduction, blaming it for the hardships that ensued, crippling their daily lives.
Mahmoud Abu Hamza, 47 from Jabalya refugee camp, contrasts “the miserable life today” with the time when he worked as a construction worker in Israel, although in reality he and many other Gazans were stopped from working there after the 2000 intifada, years before Hamas took over.
Yet Abu Hamza and many others who do not see eye to eye with Hamas look forward to the prospect of getting 1,000 Palestinians freed from Israeli jails, just as last October the Islamist movement won a great victory through the release of 20 Palestinian women from prison for a mere three minutes of video footage of the same Shalit. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza were reminded that Hamas’s approach – that of the armed struggle – in contrast with that of Mahmoud Abbas, was ultimately yielding results.
Indeed, if the swap does happen – with the latest reports suggesting it might happen tomorrow – Hamas will come out as the victorious force to be reckoned with. In spite of the blockade and international boycott of this movement labelled as terrorist by the US and the EU, Israel will give the ultimate testimonial that Hamas have to be on the negotiating table, not out in the cold, where they actually got stronger.
Gazans hope the release of Shalit will also bring about the lifting of the crippling blockade – although nothing is given – but by all accounts Hamas will score the greatest points on the Arab street.
The agreement will also have wide political repercussions for Palestinians, especially if jailed Fatah official Marwan Barghouti – currently serving five life sentences for masterminding attacks in Israel – is released.
Many hail Barghouti as the next Palestinian leader, although senior Fatah officials are not particularly fond of him. Nevertheless, Mahmoud Abbas’s decision not to stand for re-election next year will make it much easier for him. Barghouti’s warm relationship with Hamas may also help to thaw relations between the Islamist rulers of Gaza and Fatah.
In any case, Fatah, Israel and the rest of the world will have to come to terms with the fact that despite years of blockade, wars and assassinations of its leaders, the Islamists are not only here to stay, but they are scoring points with their own people.
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