Bennett revives Gaza island plan
V THE PLAN to build an artificial island off Gaza that would provide access to the beleaguered coastal strip, as well as energy and drinking-water, was boosted last week by Israel’s new defence minister.
Naftali Bennett instructed the IDF general staff to examine a plan, originally proposed by Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz, that has not been supported by his predecessors as Defence Minister, Moshe Yaalon and Avigdor Lieberman.
Under the plan, an artificial island would be built a few miles off Gaza’s coast, connected to Gaza City by a bridge. Estimated to cost around $10 billion (£7.7 billion), which would be raised from the international community, it would include a deep-sea port for goods to be shipped in and exported from Gaza, alongside an airport and power and desalination plants.
The island would be under Israeli security supervision and civil management of the Palestinian Authority. Construction would begin only as part of a long-term agreement with Hamas which currently controls Gaza.
Mr Katz claims it will solve the critical issues of movement of people
Naftali Bennett and goods in and out of Gaza, the frequent power outages and shortages of clean water. It would allow Israel to determine security requirements and prevent smuggling of arms, while giving the Palestinian Authority more control of Gaza. The Israeli Foreign Minister said on Sunday that he had been “pushing the international floating island initiative off Gaza for years. It is the only solution for regulated civilian access of Gaza to the world, while detaching civilian crossings from Israel and securing our border.”
The island plan has been on the table for five years. It was originally the idea of Ram Ben-Barak, a former deputy chief of Mossad, when he served under Mr Katz as director-general of the Intelligence Affairs Ministry.
Ben-Barak, now an MK for the Blue & White party, said this week that he still believes in the idea: “According to my plan, there would first be an international Palestinian port in Cyprus, where ships would come, be inspected by an international security force, and then the goods would be ferried to Gaza and return to Cyprus with products manufactured in Gaza. In the next stage, they could use the artificial island as the port of Gaza.”
Mr Ben-Barak said that he does not believe that Israel will ever sign a longterm truce with Hamas. “They are a terror organisation and that is all they are about. There will be no deal. But we still have to go ahead and provide Gaza with a port so we can improve the situation of the population there.
“Meanwhile we need to try and weaken Hamas and get the Palestinian Authority back to Gaza.”