It is hard to understand who will benefit from such an obvious policy of collective punishment, proscribed by international law for good reason. The figures quoted by the IMFA, relating to the 'lifting' of the August 1997 closure, say that 2,000 workers and 1,000 merchants from Gaza would be permitted to enter Israel to work, provided they are over 35 and 30 respectively, and married. It is not usually considered generous to take away a whole pie and give back a slice. Do not sigh with relief when CNN reports a lifting of a closure. As long as the whole Palestinian population is subjected to collective punishment for the actions of a violent minority, Israel guarantees that there is unlikely to be any change in Palestinian attitudes towards the perpetrators.
Repression creates radicalism.
Radicalism without access to power mutates into political violence. As long as Israel implements a racist and divisive ideology that deals with Jews and Arabs on two different scales there is also unlikely to be any change in the status quo. It can only serve as to prejudice the Palestinian population against Israel, Israelis and the idea of solving the conflict. It merely consists of the same old repressive practices that have characterised the Israeli occupation, tools used by both Labour and Likud governments. It is obvious that this widely disruptive closure is useless in security terms as no real attempt is being made to hermetically seal the West Bank.