The Israeli plea rejecting the charge of genocide reveals what we already know about an Egyptian corporation in the lifelong siege imposed on Gaza. Cairo, specifically, has a role as the keyholder on behalf of the Israelis in the ongoing war, its closing and opening the crossings and passing people and trucks to and from the Gaza Strip, according to the precise regulations issued by Tel Aviv.
We as Arabs and those who support Gaza around the world did not direct the blame on Egypt for its active complicity in the genocide and its silent contribution to it. There was no condemnation even in a weak and hesitant voice. It is one symptom of widespread shamelessness. The horror of the ongoing massacre and its brutality are unprecedented in living memory. There are two types of silence on this issue. One is temporary and tactical, and the other is chronic.
Exempting the Egyptian state from condemnation is normalization of the consequences of Camp David. It means accepting the subtraction of the Egyptian army’s ability in Sinai to carry out military deterrence or even defense, and making it work mere as a police force, which is combating terrorism in the Egyptian peninsula and reducing its duties just as border guard, to protect Israel on the one hand, and tighten the siege on Gaza on the other. These tasks are not limited to restricting the residents of Gaza, whether inside the Strip or while they cross Egyptian territory to travel abroad.
That shift in the Egyptian role after Camp David became a model upon which the Oslo Authority was later built as an autonomous police force on behalf of the occupation.
We must not attribute Egypt’s auxiliary role to Israel’s security to mere inability. Anwar Sadat implicitly dropped the Gaza Strip from the terms of the peace agreement, to get rid of its moral and material burdens and push its dilemmas into the embrace of Israel. If the October War was about rubbing out the shame of the setback and recovering the lands stolen as a result, this recovery remained incomplete after Camp David. Sinai was returned, and as for Gaza, which was under direct Egyptian administration until 1967, Cairo deliberately erased it from its list.
This historical responsibility should not be smothered by citing limitations. It is better to open questions about the irreparable damage resulted from Egyptian rule of the Gaza Strip since the Nakba with mandate powers inherited entirely from the previous British occupation, and other questions about its military loss in the Nakba.
Between the two wars, or to be more precise, between the two defeats, what did Gamal Abdel Nasser’s state do to the Gaza Strip, to its people, to the legal status of both, and to the Palestinian cause in general?
The legal argument advanced by the Israeli team before the International Court of Justice is completely correct and irrefutable. Cairo is not only blockading Gaza on its part but is also maintaining that blockade.
Cairo is twice guilty of the war on Gaza, once by contributing to that war, and once for giving justifications for Israel to evade responsibility for what it is committing there.
[by Shady Lewis in AlModon]
Compiled and translated by Faizul Haque