Gaza residents fear for statehood

By Alan Johnston
BBC correspondent in Gaza

The Palestinian leadership has rejected a suggestion by US President George W Bush that a deadline set for the establishment of a Palestinian state may have to be put back.

Under the so-called roadmap that is meant to lead to a settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a Palestinian state was supposed to be set up next year.

Mr Bush has said that the date is likely to slip due to recent violent flare-ups.

Many Palestinians believe that peace talks are a waste of time

The Palestinian leadership, however, has insisted that the original deadline could still be met and that there should be no delay.

But how much faith do ordinary Palestinians still have in the roadmap and the prospect of a negotiated settlement? A journey up the Gaza Strip illustrates the local people's disillusionment.

Lost belief

Rafah is a tough town at Gaza's southern end, a kind of frontline in the Palestinian uprising. Many streets have been smashed or shot up by Israeli troops - they come looking for tunnels that are used to smuggle weapons in from nearby Egyptian territory.

Just back from the worst of the destruction, an old shopkeeper conceded that he had felt a little hope when the roadmap deal was first struck. "But look, it's producing nothing," he said. "We don't believe in it now."

There was a burst of Israeli fire in the distance as he spoke. "Talk to the people who are shooting," he said. "How can we build a state when the Israelis demolish our homes every day?"

We ask God to make relations between us and them better. We want this because every day our young people are getting killed and homes are demolished Gaza resident

Two young men nearby took a much harder line which many others repeated. They said that Mr Bush and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would deliver nothing.

The peace talks would not lead to a Palestinian state; there would only be one through armed struggle.

But a woman in a car waiting to be allowed through an Israeli army checkpoint expressed the desperate desire felt by many for the quickest possible end to the violence.

"We ask God to make relations between us and them better. We want this because every day our young people are getting killed and homes are demolished. We ask God to heal the situation because either it will get better or they will attack us and we will kill each other," she said.

Obstacles

A little further on, in one of the refugee camps halfway up the strip, an old man said that peace talks were a waste of words and he cursed Mr Bush. Others in the crowd that gathered talked in the same way.

Ordinary people in Gaza regard the Americans as being entirely in the Israeli camp and a major obstacle to their dreams of establishing a state.

Palestinian suicide bombers have killed many civilians in the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The Israelis would say that if the peace process has failed then it is the fault of the Palestinians.

But here in Gaza people frequently insist that the bombings are only a response to the Israeli army's killing of Palestinian civilians and the destruction of homes.