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Mussa Dubs Israeli Security Fence Berlin Wall, Arafat Calls It Racist
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West Bank-Fence-Map |
CAIRO,
June 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Arab League blasted
Monday the Israeli project to build a high-tech security fence walling
off the West Bank from Israel and Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat condemned it as "racist".
"This
fence is a new Berlin wall," Arab League Chief Amr Mussa told
reporters alluding to the barrier that divided the German capital from
1961 to 1989, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"It
reminds us of practices that the world did not accept," he said.
Palestinians
fear the fence snaking along the West Bank will worsen the Israeli
occupation, and likened it to South Africa's old apartheid system of
racial segregation.
Israel
"is reinforcing its occupation of the Palestinian territories and
the separation between the societies," Mussa added.
The
Arab League chief called for a "redoubling of efforts to end the
occupation, to ... dismantle existing settlements instead of
constructing a wall of separation."
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| Israeli settlers rally against the fence |
The
Islamic republic of Iran also compared the fence to the Berlin wall.
For
his part, Arafat lashed out at the Israeli controversial wall Monday.
"It is a sinful assault on our land, an act of racism and
apartheid which we totally reject," Arafat told reporters
while visiting schools in the West Bank city of Ramallah, reported
BBC’s online news service.
Arafat
also angrily rejected comments by U.S. National Security Adviser
Condoleezza Rice, in which she said his Palestinian Authority was
"corrupt and cavorts with terror".
"She
does not have the right to put or impose orders on us about what to do
or not to do," Arafat said.
"We
are doing what we see as good for our people and we do not accept any
orders from anyone."
Rice,
who was speaking to a Californian newspaper, The San Jose Mercury
News, said a Palestinian state should not be based on Arafat's
administration.
The
Israeli fence is expected to form a barrier to the West of four big
Palestinian West Bank towns – Jenin, Tulkarm, Qalqilya and Nablus,
all of which proved hotbeds of tough resistance to Israeli occupation.
Israeli
officials said the fence is expected to cost about $1m (£700,000) per
kilometer and would have electric sensors that will detect any attempt
to cut through it. It is part of a buffer zone that will include army
and border police patrols and observation posts, running down the West
Bank's flank, to a point almost due west of Tel Aviv – the exact
route is still unclear, according to British daily newspaper The
Independent.
Israel's
Defense Minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who attended a ground-breaking
ceremony at the site Sunday, June 16, said the fence would eventually
stretch for 345km (215 miles) – the length of the 1967 Green Line
between Israel and the occupied West Bank. Ben Eliezer described it as
non-political and temporary, although critics argue it will be
politically difficult to remove once built.
The
project, reluctantly endorsed by Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon,
was strongly opposed by Israeli right-wingers who fear it could
eventually become a de facto border, undermining their claim to retain
possession of the West Bank.
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Ben-Eliezer watches Israeli heavy machinery prepares the ground for the security fence near Jenin. |
Palestinian
officials say the fence will further restrict movement for Palestinian
West Bankers, already required to get permits from Israeli authorities
to move between the major towns. By contrast, the more than 200,000
Israeli settlers living on the West Bank, in contravention of the
Fourth Geneva Convention, move freely.
Representatives
of Israel's one million Arab citizens are also angry about the land
confiscation that the erection of the fence will require, citing plans
to expropriate hundreds of acres belonging to the Israeli Arab town of
Umm al-Fahm.
The
fence would also split the West Bank from East Jerusalem – occupied
in 1967 - which Palestinians want to make the capital of their future
state.
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