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מרכז המידע הישראלי לזכויות האדם בשטחים (ע.ר.) One Big Prison Freedom of Movement to and from the Gaza Strip on the Eve of the Disengagement Plan March 2005 Researched and written by Yehezkel Lein Data coordination by Najib Abu Rokaya, Ariana Baruch, Rim ‘Odeh, Shlomi Swissa Fieldwork by Musa Abu Hashhash, Iyad Haddad, Zaki Kahil, Karim Jubran, Mazen al-Majdalawi, ‘Abd al-Karim S’adi Assistance on legal issues by Yossi Wolfson Translated by Zvi Shulman, Shaul Vardi Edited by Rachel Greenspahn Introduction “The only thing missing in Gaza is a morning line-up,” said Abu Majid, who spent ten years in Israeli prisons, to Israeli journalist Amira Hass in 1996.1 This sarcastic comment expressed the frustration of Gaza residents that results from Israel’s rigid policy of closure on the Gaza Strip following the signing of the Oslo Agreements. The gap between the metaphor of the Gaza Strip as a prison and the reality in which Gazans live has rapidly shrunk since the outbreak of the intifada in September 2000 and the imposition of even harsher restrictions on movement. The shrinking of this gap is the subject of this report. Israel’s current policy on access into and out of the Gaza Strip developed gradually during the 1990s. The main component is the “general closure” that was imposed in 1993 on the Occupied Territories and has remained in effect ever since. Every Palestinian wanting to enter Israel, including those wanting to travel between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, needs an individual permit. In 1995, about the time of the Israeli military’s redeployment in the Gaza Strip pursuant to the Oslo Agreements, Israel built a perimeter fence, encircling the Gaza Strip and separating it from Israel.
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