Why is the opening of Gaza Border Crossing so controversial?

May 28, 2011 4:32 PM EDT

Egypt permanently reopened southern Gaza Strip's Rafah border crossing on Saturday which has been raising Israeli fears of an rise in militant attacks.

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The Israeli opposition party Kadima blamed Egypt's for opening the Rafah border, saying such a move will threaten Israel's security.

However, a Haifa University's Palestinian society and politics expert Ido Zelkovitz said that is actually good for the State of Israel in the long run.

"If Egypt opens the crossing, Israel will supposedly no longer be responsible for supplying Gaza's daily needs and Egypt will become the official gateway," Zelkovitz added.

Former National Security Council head Major-General Giora Eiland said that the opening of the Rafah border crossing serves Israel's interests and should not be blamed.

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But, MK Avi Dichter (Kadima), former Shin Bet chief, said that the smuggling phenomenon is more important than the issue of the opening of Gaza border crossing.

"What's important is not whether the crossing is open or not, but whether the Egyptian policy has changed," the ynet news cited Dichter as saying. "Sadly, Egypt's record in the smuggling of arms and terrorists into Gaza is very bad as far as Israel is concerned. Egypt's efforts on this score varied from doing nothing to very little."

"Claiming that opening the border would cause weapons smuggling is utter nonsense as Egypt effectively decides what goes in and out." Eiland said. "And therefore if smugglings are being allowed now, an open border will not change that."

The opening eased an Egyptian blockade of Gaza which had preventedabout 1.5 million people in this densely populated area from traveling abroad, which has caused an economic crisis in this region, along with an Israeli blockade of its borders with Gaza.

The opposition party immediately responded to this move and said Netanyahu's government made a "national failure" because of its "inability to create international cooperation."

This article is copyrighted by IBTimes HK, the business news leader