If disengagement is to succeed, the occupation of Gaza must end. The disengagement plan as currently structured will not satisfy this standard–one that the Sharon government itself has established and the international community supports.

An Israeli “evacuation lite” does not accommodate basic elements of Palestinian sovereignty–safe passage, air and seaports, and an Israeli withdrawal from the “Philadelphi” border strip. It risks perpetuating a situation in the occupied territories of extraordinary levels of international aid without development, undermines any possibility for the establishment of effective Palestinian governing institutions supported by the Palestinian public, and assures continuing violent confrontation in Gaza.