Israel wants to move border crossing

ISRAEL will insist on moving the Gaza-Egypt border crossing to a new location after Israel’s pullout from Gaza so Israeli inspectors can continue to check goods and people, Israel’s Security Cabinet was told yesterday.

The emerging position appears to rule out the deployment of foreign inspectors at Gaza crossings. The Palestinians have said they would not agree to move the crossing to a three-way meeting point between Israel, Egypt and Gaza, and it was not clear how the dispute will be resolved, with just a week to go to the start of the Gaza pullout.

International mediators have proposed leaving the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt in place, and allowing foreign inspectors to take the place of Israeli security officials.

"Israel claims it wants to get out of Gaza but in reality it wants to continue to control Gaza," said Diana Buttu, a Palestinian spokesperson. "What Israel really seeks to do it to control Gaza both militarily and economically by moving the Rafah crossing."

The Security Cabinet did not make a final decision on the border arrangements, but the insistence on moving the crossing to the three-way meeting point, near the Israeli communal farm of Kerem Shalom, indicated that Israel is not yet willing to rely on others to carry out security tasks. The deployment of foreign inspectors at Rafah would have given Palestinians relatively unfettered access to the world for the first time in decades.

Israel's Security Cabinet also said Israeli troops could leave the Gaza-Egypt border by the end of the year if the deployment of some 750 Egyptian troops there goes smoothly.

International envoy James Wolfensohn, who has been trying to broker an agreement between the two sides on border crossings, has urged Israel to make a

decision on border arrangements before the withdrawal starts. He has said the withdrawal will only be a success if fenced-in Gazans can move freely a prerequisite for reviving their battered economy.

Israel's main concern about the border crossings and ports is that militants could use them to smuggle weapons and infiltrate comrades into Gaza from Egypt after Israel leaves.

The Security Cabinet met a day after Benjamin Netanyahu resigned as finance minister, in a last-minute protest against the Gaza pullout. The resignation made Netanyahu, a hard-liner and former prime minister with ambitions to reclaim the top job, the new leader of withdrawal opponents.

He was expected to challenge Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for leadership of the ruling Likud Party after the pullout, a move that could lead to elections.