The Oslo Accords, signed in 1993, stipulated that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank should constitute “a single territorial unit”. And yet almost immediately after signing the agreement, Israel pursued a policy of severing ties between the West Bank and Gaza, and each from Israel, by making travel to and from the Gaza Strip increasingly difficult for Palestinians and Israelis. It was as though the severing of ties between the two nations was in preparation for what was to come – shielding Israelis from seeing Palestinians as human beings, and Palestinians from any normal encounters with Israelis except as soldiers or settlers. My last visit to Gaza was in 1999 and it was only because a permit was secured by the World Bank
Raja Shehadeh
I have been sitting helplessly in Ramallah, watching endless television clips of the horrific bombardment of civilian infrastructure and residences in Gaza, and the heart-breaking suffering of civilians there. I have heard the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, say that his country is fighting against “human animals”, and I have seen the aftermath of the indiscriminate killings of civilians committed by Hamas militants in southern Israel. I’ve been waiting for the “significant ground operations” that have been threatening to arrive at any moment. The searing question on my mind has been: “How did we get to this?”
The words that Haidar Abdul Shafi, then head of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, addressed to the Israeli people 32 years ago at the Madrid peace conference came suddenly to mind: “We, the people of Palestine, stand before you in the fullness of our pain, our pride and our anticipation, for we have long harboured a yearning for peace and a dream of justice and freedom.”…
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/15/palestinians-peace-israel-west-bank
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After the truth-shower 