Big Plans for Gaza

NYT reported Where the Israeli settlement of Netzarim once drew rage and mortar fire, Palestinian planners envision a cultural center and museum. In place of the settlement of Morag they see an agricultural research facility. Looking ahead 10 years after the Israeli departure from the Gaza Strip, they picture this isolated, conflict-blown strip of sand transformed into a tidy place linked internally by light rail and a coastal parkway and connected to the world by an airport and seaport.

Such is the outline sketched in an internal 10-year plan for the strip, obtained by The New York Times. The plan assumes that the population will grow by one million, to 2.3 million. It also assumes that the violence will not resume, that Israel will let Palestinian planes take off and that the governing Palestinian Authority will develop the land competently....

The 10-year plan envisions two main cities - Gaza City in the north and Khan Yunis in the south - four east-west "green corridors" and the creation of free-trade zones near the proposed airport and harbor and "industrial estates" along the boundary with Israel.... According to the plan, the Gush Katif bloc in the south should be given over to agriculture and maybe "tourist villages/resorts

They are not likely to have tourists unless they decide to live in peace with Israel. If they start rocket attacks across the wall, they should expect repisal attacks that will drive off any tourists.

under close environmental supervision." Kfar Darom, it says, should also be dedicated to agriculture. But the seaport, which officials want to build with $88 million from various European governments, is the most extensive project announced so far. Mr. Dahlan says the inland area "will be the station for support services." The project shows, he said, that "there are new chances on the horizon."

Are they economic opportunities that come from peace with Israel, or is the purpose of the seaport to import more rockets to fire on Israel?

Yet the seaport illustrates problems peculiar to investing in the Palestinian territories. All that remains of the previous attempt at a port are a gouge in the dunes leading to the sea and a buckled cement floor strewn with broken glass and shredded steel. During the current Palestinian uprising against Israel the army demolished the structure that donors had built, and work stopped. While Israel has given its permission to build the new seaport, it has not reached any agreement with the Palestinians to operate it.

They probably want to see if this "Palestinian State" wants to live in peace, or continue the war.

Several Palestinian businessmen and economists said the project made little sense. If relations with Israel are good, they said, they can continue using the nearby Israeli port of Ashdod, or Port Said in Egypt. If they are bad, they said, Israel will not let them use their new port.

Precisely. I think they have figured it out.

"I think most people realize it's not in the top list of priorities for the Gazan economy, or for the Palestinian economy," said Jawdat N. Khoudary, one of the biggest contractors here.

He is right. Their top priority should be decent housing for the residents, and jobs.

But Salah Abdel Shafi, an economist in Gaza, argued for the project, saying, "It is feasible that this port could be used not just by Palestinians but even by Jordanians and Iraqis in the long term." But he added, "This requires a completely normal situation

With peace all things are possible. Do the Palestinians want peace?

, where borders are more or less open in the region." Citing a risk of terrorist attack, Israel imposes tight restrictions on the movement of people or goods from Gaza.