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Palestinians across the Gaza Strip celebrated the long-awaited liberation of the territory after the start of the Israeli pullout, amid scenes of jubilation and high hopes of a better and prosperous future. Mosques encouraged the Palestinians, through loudspeakers, to attend congregational prayers of thanks, and pray for future pull-outs from the West Bank and Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem). Dozens of drivers in Gaza City honked their horns on the streets and hundreds others showed up donning caps and white T-shirts reading “Today Gaza, Tomorrow the West Bank and Al-Quds.”


“Ten years of negotiations failed to achieve what four years of Intifada did,” read a banner emblazoned by Hamas fighters across a Gaza street. “It is undoubtedly a milestone in Palestinian history,” Hamas spokesman, Mushir Al-Masri told hundreds of Hamas supporters and Palestinians in Gaza City. The Palestinian Withdrawal Committee, headed by Minister of Civil Affairs Muhammad Dahlan, organised a “street clean-up” event as part of the celebrations.


Celebrations also took place in southern Lebanon and Jordan, home to large Palestinian populations.


The Israeli occupation army intends to leave the Gaza settlements and the four isolated enclaves in the West Bank by September 4, 2005. It plans to complete the Gaza pullout in October, when the last Israeli troops are scheduled to leave. But the Palestinians fear Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon devised the Gaza plan as a ruse to cement Israel’s hold on most of the West Bank, where 230,000 settlers and 2.4 million Palestinians live. Nonetheless, Palestinians pin high hopes on the withdrawal, saying it heralds a new era of prosperity to compensate them for their long-lost freedom. “When they leave, we will build a large hotel on the sea-front which will be called the Peace Hotel,” said Iyad, dreaming out loud from his impoverished village locked in the heart of Gush Katif. But despite the imminent evacuation on August 17 of the Gaza Strip’s 21 settlements, the Palestinians of the fertile Mawasi village, near Gush Katif, are still not sure if they can believe the settlers are really going. “When they leave we will be able to sleep with no fear. For the moment it is impossible to rest,” said Masawi Mayor Ahmed Mustafa Al-Majaida. “I will go to the beach with my children and my wife. We will organise a huge party and then sleep on the sand and under the stars, with nothing to fear”, he added.

Muslim scholars from around the world wrapped a meeting recently in the Egyptian Red Sea Resort of Sharm El-Sheikh with a call to combat the global phenomenon of terrorism through constructive dialogue.


“The absence of dialogue is one of the main reasons behind thriving terrorism,” read the final communique of the two-day conference, organised by Saudi businessman Sheikh Saleh Kamel’s Iqraa Foundation. The conference was attended by a host of leading figures, including Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Mohammad Sayed Tantawi, the grand imam of Al-Azhar. “Muslim behaviour must speak louder than words in the West,” the scholars averred. Defining terrorism as “any act of violence against civilian, innocent people or public properties,” the scholars said acts of terror are harming Islamic interests abroad and creating domino effect on Muslims worldwide. “The problem lies in the mindsets of those people, many of whom have diverted from the right path. We must sit and talk with those people,” said, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, chairman of the International Association of Muslim Scholars (IAMS). Famed Muslim scholar, Mohammad Ramadan Al-Bouti called for establishing a unified religious authority for Muslims worldwide as a supreme Islamic council with irreversible decisions and opinions.