Gaza under Egypt: 1949-1967

In the aftermath of Israel's War of Independence in 1948, the territory known as the Gaza Strip fell under the control of Egypt.  At the time that Egypt's occupation began, there were around 300,000 Arabs living in the strip.  When Egypt controlled the Gaza strip, it ruled with an iron fist.  All political parties that were not approved by the Egyptian government were banned.  Free elections were not held.  The arrest and torture of dissidents without any trial or due process was common.  The refugees living in the strip were subject to a daily curfew, and were often shot if they violated it.  Egyptians seized property in Gaza at will while denying refugees the right to purchase their own.  


The entire Strip became nothing more than a prison camp.  Egyptians took little, if any effort, to help the people.  No attempt was made to build a stable economy.  There were scant medical care available.  No efforts were made to improve sanitation, and thousands were pressed to serve in the Egyptian military.  When unrest began to grow among the populace, the Egyptians collaborated with local Arab leaders to create fighting units known as Fedayeen were created in order to launch terrorist attacks against Israel.  This tactic also served to distract the Palestinians from their hardships at the hands of the Egyptians & instead direct their anger toward the Israelis.  Throughout the Egyptian occupation, Nasser used the schools and media in the region to indoctrinate the populace to hate the nation of Israel.  Schools in Gaza portrayed Jews as Devils, Pigs, & occupiers. This hatred of Jews preached in schools all over Arab word.  Arabs who disagreed regarded as traitors & ostracized.  It was a campaign of manipulation not unlike that of Hitler, which scapegoated the Jewish people for the sufferings of the populace.  

Even as the Egyptian dictators indoctrinated the populace with the intense hatred of Israel, they maintained their practice of Apartheid-style conditions on the people of Gaza.  They not only made Gaza into a prison camp, but kept them trapped inside, denying them the opportunity to leave and seek a better life within Egypt.  When Nonie Darwish lived in Gaza she wondered why the Egyptian government just didn't let the refugees live in the Sinai.  The whole region was practically empty.  It would have been easy to resettle much of the populace there, but Egypt only cared about fighting Israel, not helping the refugees, and this is still the recurring practice followed throughout the Arab world today.  Ralph Galloway, an UNRWA official who quit in frustration, observed bitterly: "The Arab states don't want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don't give a damn whether the refugees live or die."

Sources

Darwish, Nonie.  Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror.  New York: Penguin Group, 2006.

Whartman, Elizabeth.  "When Egypt was in Gaza."  Jerusalem Post.  June 03, 2009.  Accessed from https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/When-Egypt-was-in-Gaza