When I moved to Hong Kong in 1976 it was owned by China, but administered by Britain. Nobody living here then had any doubt about that day-to-day running was British. Everything from the legal system to the dog licence was controlled by British bureaucracy.
Still… China controlled HK airspace, our land borders, our water supply, most of our electricity.
China didn't much care for Britain running Hong Kong, but put up with it until the expiry of the lease in 1997.
But here's the thing. Britain-run Hong Kong didn't rain rockets on China. It didn't dig tunnels into China to spirit suicide bombers onto the mainland. It didn't pay lifetime pensions to their families of to encourage them to kill their neighbours.
In short, it didn't do any of the things that Hamas does regularly on the Gaza Strip.
I mention this for the obvious reason. That if you look up Gaza on Wikipedia you are told that it's not considered "self governing", that it's "still occupied by Israel" because Israel "controls the airspace, the land border, the water, the electricity" and so on. [*] Yet had Hamas acted as Hong Kong did under the Poms, it would be prospering with every bit the same freedom, the same "self government" as Hong Kong had and continues to have.
It's up to Gaza. That is, it's up to Hamas. Hamas could choose the Hong Kong way. So far they've chosen the Taliban way. A Hong Kong way would see freedom and prosperity for all Palestinians.
It's up to Hamas.
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[*] Wiki: Israel maintains direct external control over Gaza and indirect control over life within Gaza: it controls Gaza's air and maritime space, and six of Gaza's seven land crossings. It reserves the right to enter Gaza at will with its military and maintains a no-go buffer zone within the Gaza territory. Gaza is dependent on Israel for its water, electricity, telecommunications, and other utilities.Right. And so was and is Hong Kong. Yet Hong Kong gets along as all-but independent.
