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Gaza-Israel border post: lifeline and bottle neck

Posted on: Monday, 5 June 2006, 09:37 CDT

By Luke Baker

KARNI CARGO CROSSING, Israel (Reuters) - If Gaza has a choking point, it may be Karni.

The vast concrete and steel border post is the point through which virtually all trade must pass between Israel and Gaza, a strip on the Mediterranean where 1.4 million Palestinians live.

Controlled by Israel, the crossing is, from the Palestinian perspective, both a lifeline and a potential noose.

In the first four months of this year, Karni was closed for 58 days, or 53 percent of the time, according to the United Nations, sharply curtailing activity in Gaza's moribund economy.

The closures, Israeli officials say, were the result of specific security threats, including an attempted attack using twin 500 kg (1,100 lb) car bombs in late April.

"There is always a threat," Colonel Nir Press, an Israeli Defense Force commander in charge of border crossings, said during a recent visit to Karni.

"Terrorists are trying to work out the security of the system all the time," he said, adding that sometimes toy guns are placed inside goods leaving Gaza as militants try to work out ways to smuggle weapons into Israel.

However, the closures have also coincided with the rise to power of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that won Palestinian elections in January and took office in March.

The United States, Israel and the European Union regard Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, as a terrorist organization and have pushed hard to cut off all funding to the Palestinian Authority it now runs.

That has included severing payments to the Palestinian government, which until a limited solution was found on Sunday, had not paid salaries to its 165,000 employees for three months.

CAUTIOUS IMPROVEMENT

It has also, according to Palestinian businessmen and foreign diplomats, meant closing Karni at crucial times, such as when agricultural exports -- an essential foreign currency earner -- need to get out for immediate shipment abroad.

One Gaza farm project that hoped to send tomatoes and peppers to Europe failed to export 90 percent of its produce in the first season because of closures, losing nearly $10 million, manager Ayed Abu Ramadan said last week.

When the crossing is open, it is often only partially so, with many more truckloads flowing into Gaza than out. On one day last week, about 300 truckloads went in and 90 came out, 60 of them empty, Israeli officials said. Most days fewer exit.

However, there are signs of change.

Since Amir Peretz, the leader of the relatively dovish Labour Party, was appointed Israel's defense minister in early May, he has pushed for more shipments to cross the border.

His policy shift appears a move to bring Israel into line with a pledge made to the United States last November to allow up to 150 truckloads to leave every day.

Exports remain a long way from that level, but the United Nations, which has been pushing for Karni to be opened more consistently to aide Gaza's economy is encouraged.

"We are seeing the beginning of an improvement, although it remains to be seen if it's sustainable," David Shearer, the head of the U.N.'s aid coordination office, told Reuters on Monday. The U.N. is due to issue a new report on Karni on Tuesday.

Yet Palestinians remain worried, not only that the border could quickly be closed again if there are security concerns, but also because they still feel the flow is hand-to-mouth.

The director of Gaza's main hospital complained last week of having only two days' worth of some medicines left, and wondered what the priority for imports was. "I see Coca-Cola coming in, but what about medicine," said Ibrahim el-Habbash.

Source: REUTERS

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