Thread by @haravayin_hogh

Thread w/excerpts from Gaza: A History (2014) by Filiu. Was curious how pre-1967 Egyptian rule compared to Jordan's West-Bank (spoiler: far worse) or how it fared under Israel before the cordon sanitaire after Hamas took over. Author clearly pro-🇵🇸 but his tone is dispassionate.

https://x.com/haravayin_hogh/status/1953436259025883559

Antique points of interest. Soft local soil always lent to siege tunnels. Post-Alexander Gaza was totally Hellenised, with negligible✡️, so☦️came quite late. Saint Porphyry deviously had persecution of pagans authorised by "petitioning" the tolerant Emperor Arcadius' infant son.

Skipping ☪️/🇬🇧 eras & the 1948 War (read B. Morris). Author notes Gaza became a backwater in the Ottoman period, as it became strategically redundant as last city before the Sinai desert. Unlike 🇱🇧, lacked timber so it declined as a port. Renewed importance when Turks lost Egypt.

Nasser as an officer in 48 war, furious over Egyptian propaganda lying about victories, resulting in major defeats. Ironically, on becoming leader, his regime behaved identically, leading to catastropic losses for his Syrian & Jordanian allies as well. Gaza flooded with refugees.

UK backed a plan in which 🇮🇱 would annex Gaza, in return for an Egyptian land corridor to Jordan through the Negev. Ben-Gurion understandably refused.
Gaza under 🇪🇬 martial law. Spread of Muslim Brotherhood underground from Cairo. Arafat friendly with them but never joined.

The only political org in Gaza which openly opposed "Egyptian occupation" and called for a independent state were the Communists. The Muslim Brotherhood (hence just "The Brothers") originally backed Nasser's coup as anti-monarchists, were briefly favoured as all Commies crushed.

Foreign observers noted Egypt's total indifference to its 🇵🇸 population, who were left in limbo and cynically used as meatshields. In contrast, Jordan annexed the West-Bank & granted residents full citizenship. Thus the Hashemites took a far more serious attitude to 🇮🇱 raids.

One reason the UN became Gaza's biggest employer was that it was uniquely exempt from Egyptian martial law banning trade-unions. Nasser floated a Sinai resettlement plan for 60k 🇵🇸 refugees, which was sunk by pigheaded opposition. Author doubts whether it was logistically viable.

Nasser covertly trained Gazan "fedayin" guerillas for raids into 🇮🇱, whilst publicly blaming The Brotherhood for provocations. One raid even reached Tel Aviv. The Mukhabarat secret police preferred recruits with Egyptian criminal records so it kept full leverage over them.

Nasser offered recognition on 1947 partition lines, likely so he could moral-grandstand on its inevitable rejection. Egypt kept covertly supporting 🇵🇸-raids until an 🇮🇱 reprisal attack with a monsterkill-72-to-1 ratio (at a Gazan barracks) humiliated Egypt into quitting.

Calm broken by artillery duel. IDF shelling of Gaza city, a nearby Kibbutz raided in return. Moshe Dayan (area commander) spoke at a funeral where he emphasised that 🇵🇸 hatred of 🇮🇱 was perfectly understandable. Huge contrast to diaspora/Likud "cry-bully" victim mentality today.

Nasser's bloviating & support of anti-colonial fighters in places like 🇩🇿 aroused the ire of 🇬🇧🇫🇷, who were still independent powers in 56. Thus Israel grabbed its chance to humiliate Egypt. Really, Nasser had no real talents as a statesman aside from being tall & charismatic.

Israel rapidly overran Egyptian forces in Gaza, who were widely dispersed & unable to coordinate. In Khan Yunis, there were massacres of 🇵🇸 male civilians over 15 as fedayin. Future 2004 Hamas leader (Rantissi) was an 8yo in 1956 at K.Y. refugee camp when the killings took place.

After intial shock-and-awe, 🇮🇱 occupation admin was established in Gaza, overseen by Moshe Dayan. Demarcation line removed. Favourable exchange-rate to remove 🇪🇬pounds from circulation. Withdrawal from Sinai & Gaza was suddenly forced by 🇺🇸 Eisenhower, after just 4 months.

The 1st brief 🇮🇱 Gaza occupation was thorough-going, with figures suggesting 1 in 100 inhabitants directly harmed during the occupation in some way. Egypt forced most 🇵🇸 militant leaders to flee abroad (mostly to the Gulf) on having Gaza returned to it courtesy of the 🇺🇸.

International Arab infighting over who could claim the mantle of "🇵🇸 Liberation", inevitably to the chagrin of the titular objects of such liberation. Nasser in particular interfered with UN aid programs in Gaza, again for the purpose moral grandstanding against Israel.

Schemes of Arab nations in forming 🇵🇸 orgs, all competing with one another. Syria backed Fatah, Egypt the PLO, whilst Saudi Arabia quietly backed the Brotherhood's public fronts. All these 🇵🇸 factions would take an independent life of their own, but their rivalries would remain.

After Egypt was smashed on the battlefield by Israel in 1956, it finally switched its Gaza policy to development over confrontation, designating it a "free port". Deals with East-Europe were signed, enabling Gaza to grow as a citrus exporter. Visit of Satre & Simone Bevoir.

Buildup to the 6-Day War. After the experience of the 1956, both Ben-Gurion & Dayan were against reoccupying Gaza, preferring to leave it to Egypt.
In 1967, Rabin conquered Gaza against their wishes. Dayan first urged for conciliatory "open door" labour polices in Gaza.

Recalling the brutality of the 1st IDF occupation, ~45k Gazans fled to Egypt (they weren't allowed back) after 🇮🇱 retook the strip. Failure of Israel to keep Gaza in 1956 encouraged extended armed resistance.
☪️-Brotherhood eschewed violence & even celebrated Nasser's defeat.

After losing over 1/2 its GDP & 2/3rds of its people to 🇮🇱 in 1967, Jordan's (mostly🇵🇸) population naturally reeled against its king as a failure.
An IDF raid into Jordan's remaining territory was beaten off by 🇵🇸 guerillas, contrasting against the regular army's recent defeat.

I think it really can't be emphasised enough that any regime in Jordan's position after 1967 would be suffering a severe crisis of legitimacy. The "Black September" insurrection in which Palestinian militias attempted to overthrow the monarchy needs to be seen in this light, when typical Hasbarist arguments are made that Palestinians have a virtual genetic propensity "to bite the hand that feeds them" etc.

With Dayan's "open door" Gaza policy failing to conciliate the population, expulsions to Sinai began. Gazans incentivised to travel to Jordan for work etc were refused return. Israel planned mass-deportations of 100k Gazans to Iraq, Libya or even Latin-America, but were rejected.

Israel struggled to assert any authority in Gaza for years, the strip remaining a near warzone until 1970. Dayan's switch in tactics was critiqued as counterproductive by colleagues. Dayan maintained his course, appointing Ariel Sharon as the ultimate brute to smash resistance.

Gazan police recruited from Israeli-Arabs. Sharon's measures, combined with the PLO's Jordan disaster, finally reduced Gazan violence to acceptable levels.
Sharon, ever the maverick, could even propose 30K Gazans be allowed to return to🇮🇱 &/or compensation as a goodwill gesture!

Once Sharon crushed the fedayin, Dayan dismissed him, seeking normalisation of Gaza, transferring from martial law to civilian Arab leadership. "Hajj" Rashad Shawa was appointed. He had nationalist bonafides & links to the Hashemite royals in Jordan, which (literally) bore fruit.

Jordan's king growing hopes for his "Gaza plan", with Rashad as its local aristocratic champion, for which he was attacked by Gazan Islamists. Golda Meir rejected the plan out of hand. Rashad's reluctant refusal to permanently settle Gaza's refugees led to his dismissal by 🇮🇱.

Arab defeat in the Yom Kippur War ended "River to the Sea" delusions of Israel's destruction from all but the most extremist 🇵🇸 orgs, such as the PFLP. Intra-Arab state rivalries led to the end of "Jordanian Option" talk for Gaza, & Rashad was politically forced to abandon it.

From the 70s, Israel tacitly promoted Islamist orgs in Gaza, which rapidly infiltrated all sectors of public life, at the expense of Christians, nationalists & secularists. Before the Iranian Revolution, Israel viewed Muslim piety as leading to political quietism & encouraged it.

By 1977 there were only 4 🇮🇱 settlements in Gaza, in contrast to 48 in WB, 25 in Golan & 12 in Sinai. Density & by now-ingrained militancy of Gaza's Arab population, along with lack of free farmland discouraged all but the most fanatical revisionists from setting up in the area.

Moshe Dayan's "open door" policy eventually produced results, molifying Gaza's population by improving living standards. Half of employed Gazans worked in Israel by 1977. This equilibrium would be overturned by Begin's shock election, peace with Egypt & the Iranian Revolution.

Gaza's fate was left out of the Camp David 🇮🇱-🇪🇬 negotiations. Sadat told Arafat towards the end of talks he would try asking for a Gaza withdrawal, but he was not believed. Egypt's treaty signing led to disturbances & 🇵🇸 infighting, triggered by feelings of paranoia & betrayal.

One explanation for Revolutionary Iran's longstanding dedication to the "🇵🇸 Cause", oddly above most Arab states, stems from the fact many of the Islamic Republic's new officials lived near Palestinian refugee camps & were trained in arms directly by the PLO.

1980s Gaza became increasingly dominated by Islamists after ties with Sadat's Egypt were cut. With secular nationalists marginalised (with tacit 🇮🇱 encouragement), the 2 main Islamist orgs in Gaza began fighting for power. Sheikh Yassin's Brotherhood came out on top.

Begin's ramped up new settlements, & old Labor figures like Dayan who were interested in working relationship with 🇵🇸 soon gave up on the new Likud gov. Invasion of 🇱🇧 & the Sabra-Chatila massacre marked a new low. Many younger Gazans concluded negotiations were a waste of time.

Israel's cold peace with Egypt in exchange for returning the Sinai entailed Gaza becoming a tiny enclave for the first time. Around 300 homes near the new border were razed. Continuing rise of Islamist orgs in Gaza as the PLO was crushed 🇱🇧. Islamist takeover of Gaza university.

After Rashad Shawa resigned as Gaza's mayor & 🇮🇱military rule replaced it, Sheikh Yassin rose as the strip's de facto dominant leader. His Salafist goons smashed medieval Islamic shrines & began attacking all potential 🇵🇸 local rivals, first by social pressure, then by violence.

Rashad Shawa, deeply concerned by Gaza's growing barbarisation, went to Tel Aviv to meet with Mapam, 🇮🇱's most left mainstream party. He madea final shot was made at the Jordanian Option & rejected. Gazan settlements grew greatly under Rabin, provoking serious violence from 84 on

Rival Islamist factions & settlement growth led to Gazan violence becoming endemic by the mid 80s. But it was ironically accidental truck collision (killing 4 🇵🇸s) that sparked what's now dubbed "The First Intifada" in 87, whilst Sheikh Yassin split "Hamas" from the Brotherhood.

General economic decline in Gaza over the 1980s, exacerbated by explosive 🇵🇸 population growth, crowding out limited agricultural land. Continued influx of Jewish settlers, who were given an average of 20 times the land of any Gazan peasant farmer, courtesy of 🇮🇱 military rule.

Rashad Shawa's death, and with him "the Jordanian Option", imo the only realistic hope Palestinians of Gaza/WB had to live normal lives as state citizens. Shawa's abandonment of the plan was more due to recognition of new realities than conviction, & he withdrew from public life.

Having finished the book today, this point retrospectively also marks the general end of hope for the Palestinians in general. With the notables of pre-Occupation era passing away and steady decline in living conditions, the new generation of Gazan leaders inevitably reflect the general collapse in education standards.
The utter sham (at least after Rabin) of the "Peace Process" takes up many tedious pages, whilst the attempted principled-non-violence of the 1st Intifida is responded to with IDF bullets. After 1996, Netanyahu deliberately crashes any attempt at good faith negotiations, whilst the impotent new "Palestinian Authority" is left holding the bag. Ehud Barak is at least somewhat genuine but weak, parochial and incompetent, Arafat increasingly looks like a useless stooge. Repeated provocations from Sharon lead to the 2nd Intifida, and a rash of suicide bombings, which are responded to with aerial bombings & attack helicopters, etc etc.
Hamas' Sheikh Yassin authorises a woman with two young children to become a suicide bomber, Israel crushes an American (Rachael Corrie) with a bulldozer - and just gets worse and worse from there.
Might as well stop posting excerpts on this thread here, as there's not much to be learned from or enjoyed by reading a detailed blow-by-blow account of repeated tit-for-tat murders turning into unbroken racial-religious tribal warfare.
The 70s strangely looks like a golden age by comparison. As usual, like so many other Israel's now unsolveable problems, everything goes wrong in Gaza beginning with Begin's 1977 election.