The complications of the Disengagement Plan: Regaining the settlers' favour

It has been ten years since the Disengagement Plan was enacted. In accordance with this plan, Israel abandoned all of the settlements in the Gaza Strip, i.e. the settlement bloc known as Gush Katif, along with four settlements in the northern part of the West Bank. Also in accordance with this plan, the Israeli army was withdrawn from the Gaza Strip and redeployed around Gaza, thus imposing a siege on it which has continued until today.

The Disengagement Plan was enacted in the summer of 2005 by a right-wing government formed by the Likud party, led by Ariel Sharon, amid opposition from within the right-wing camp, both from the Likud party and from the settlers. This plan highlighted the differences within the right-wing, especially between the main party, Likud, and the settlers opposition from within the right-wing camp at a time when Israel was subject to international criticism for its repression of Palestinians during the second Intifada between 2000 and 2005, the death and wounding of thousands of Palestinians, and the stalling of the political process that began with the signing the Oslo Accords in 1993.

The differences over the Disengagement Plan led to the split of the Likud party when Sharon and a large number of party members left Likud and established the Kadima party. Despite the fact that Kadima was formed by right-wing figures, it was described as a centrist party because it agreed to withdraw from the territories occupied in 1967. Leaders from the Labour party, most notably Shimon Peres, joined Kadima and Sharon remained head of the government until early 2006.

Netanyahu is currently seeking to implement steps internally similar to those taken by Sharon on the eve of implementing the Disengagement Plan, but the goal of this is the opposite. He aims to thwart any attempt to evacuate any settlements or withdraw from the West Bank. He always makes statements saying that if a settlement is reached, after the Palestinians agree to his impossible conditions, then the settlement would go to a referendum, and therefore he seeks to enact a referendum law.

Ten years ago, the Knesset rejected a draft referendum law put forward by opponents of the Disengagement Plan. Sharon used all of his political weight in order to prevent the adoption of this law as he anticipated that the majority of Israelis would oppose it. In the most recent elections, held on 17 March, Netanyahu succeeded in attracting Jewish Home party followers to vote for Likud. This made the party the largest political force and made it difficult to form a government without its involvement in the government. He then formed a right wing-Haredi government that only the Yisrael Beiteinu party participated in under the leadership of Avigdor Lieberman. However, the votes of this party’s MKs in favour of the government when making political decisions are guaranteed because of its opposition to reaching a settlement with the Palestinians.

On 16 February 2005, the Knesset adopted a law to implement the Disengagement Plan, known at the time as the Evacuation/Compensation Law. On 20 February, Sharon signed orders for the evacuation of 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the northern area of the West Bank. Opinion polls showed that 66 per cent of Israelis supported the Disengagement Plan and there was a clear majority in favour of the plan in the Knesset. The media reflected this as well.

Despite this, the settlers and their leaders in the Yesha Council had hoped that they would be able to turn things around by adopting the referendum law. They had also hoped to prevent the approval of the general budget and that Sharon’s government would fall. However, the Knesset rejected the referendum draft law and approved the general budget with the support of the Likud rebels; 13 Knesset members who opposed the disengagement plan.

Al-Monitor’s political analyst, Mazal Mualem, predicted that “In the coming days and weeks, as we approach Aug. 15 — the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the evacuation — we will hear more and more allegations along the lines of Zohar’s statement: empty clichés taken from the narrative cultivated by the right in the last decade, according to which the disengagement from Gaza was a catastrophe that led to the rise of Hamas and brought about the rocket terror.”

She also noted: “Right-wing spokespeople, including senior politicians headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have succeeded over the years in transforming the disengagement plan (of late Prime Minister and Likud Chairman Ariel Sharon) into a symbol of diplomatic blindness, diplomatic and security irresponsibility and a road sign warning against similar steps in the future. The right-wing position, which holds that every time Israel retreats from territories they then become hotbeds of terror, has taken root in the public consciousness.”

However, Mualem considered the Disengagement Plan to be a “political initiative”, and wrote: “Precisely in these very days, when the Israeli public is exposed to the significance and the repercussions of the growing diplomatic pressures on Israel, centre-left spokespeople can present the advantages of the diplomatic initiative — if not to improve Israel’s strategic circumstances in the region, then at least to stop the global delegitimisation process that is likely to harm its diplomatic robustness.”

According to Yedioth Ahronoth’s political analyst, Shimon Shiffer, thousands of mortar shells were fired at the settlements in Gaza from 2000 to 2005, and nearly 150 Israeli soldiers and settlers were killed in terror attacks in the Gaza Strip. Shiffer added: “Whoever argues that Gush Katif was heaven until the disengagement is wrong and misleading. Palestinian terror has to do with the desire to remove the Israeli entity from all the lands occupied in 1967, and among many organisations the goal is to annihilate the Zionist entity everywhere.”

Over the last six years, Israel has had right-wing governments that direct deadly criticism of the Disengagement Plan in the Gaza Strip, despite the fact that most of its members supported the plan. Today, Israel’s right wing, headed by Netanyahu, is trying to win the vote of settlers expelled from the Palestinian territories by refusing to engage in any negotiations or proposals to return the land to its original owners. The era of Israel’s kings ended with the death of Sharon and there is no longer any way to secure unanimity in decision making, such as those secured by Sharon before his death in light of the political divide currently witnessed in the Israeli political scene.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.