The wall exacts a heavy toll on Palestinians

GAZA CITY, November 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israel's controversial West Bank separation wall will lead to severe humanitarian consequences for more than 680,000 Palestinians (30 percent), according to a new United Nations report.

Conducted by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the report concluded that little consideration appears to have been given by the Israeli government to the wall's disastrous impact on Palestinian lives, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP), which obtained a copy of the survey.

"The damage caused by the destruction of land and property for the wall's construction is irreversible and undermines Palestinians' ability to ever recover even if the political situation allows conditions to improve," said the report.

"More than 400,000 other Palestinians living to the east of the wall will need to cross it to get to their farms, jobs and services. This means that approximately 680,000 -- 30 percent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank - will be directly harmed by the wall," it said.

It added that some 210,000 acres (85,000 hectares) -- or 14.5 percent -- of West Bank land would lie between the path of the barrier and the "Green Line," the internationally-recognized boundary between Israel and the West Bank.

"This land, some of the most fertile in the West Bank, is currently the home for more than 274,000 Palestinians living in 122 villages and towns," it said.

"These people will either live in closed areas -- areas between the wall and the Green Line - or in enclaves totally surrounded by the wall.

"More people, unable to reach their land to harvest crops, graze animals or to reach work to earn the money to buy food, will be hungry…Residents also risk being cut off from schools, universities and specialized medical care," it added.

It said that only 11 percent of the route of the wall conforms to the Green Line.

Last month, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution, demanding Tel Aviv to "stop and reserve" the construction of its separation wall.

Another U.N. report showed similar condemnation of the wall last September. The report underlined that the separation wall marked illegal annexation of Palestinian territory and must be condemned by the world community.

The 700km-long wall will further cut occupied Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank.

It will eventually snake some 900 kilometers (540 miles) along the West Bank and leave even larger swathes of its fertile territory on the Israeli side and could cost up to $2.2 million a kilometer or a total of $1.8 billion.

The first phase of the barrier was completed in July 2003 in the northern West Bank. The defiant Israeli government of Ariel Sharon approved last month a new 100-million-dollar section of the controversial barrier.

The Palestinian Authority fears the real aim of the wall is to dictate the borders of its promised state.