In ancient times they built walls to keep invaders out. In Qalqilya the wall is being built to keep the occupied in. Farmland and water resources out of reach beyond the boundary, the occupation of this West Bank city has entered a new phase: the concentration camp. Isabelle Humphries accompanies UN Development Program staff and the mayor of Qalqilya on a tour around the prison wall.

Just 8 miles from the Mediterranean coast, Qalqilya is the closest West Bank town to Tel Aviv. It is here that the new Israeli Wall is almost finished, leaving the citizens of Qalqilya in their own ghetto. In the past three months, over 50% of Qalqilyan agricultural land has been confiscated to build the Israeli security zone. In the past, the rich water resources of the area enabled Qalqilyan farmers to have a market so successful that fruits and vegetables were exported to places as far as the Gulf.

Today, farmers do not even have access to enough land to feed themselves. The 45,000 residents of Qalqilya live encircled by a concrete wall, farmland and significant water supplies beyond their reach on the other side of the wall. Every few meters, soldiers are positioned at watchtowers, ready to open fire on anyone who approaches. There is one checkpoint out, and only those few who allocated a permit can leave.

More of the Same

Physical barriers are nothing new to Palestinians. Gazans have lived with physical boundaries such as fences, barbed wire and concrete walls for years. But the announcement of this particular wall in the West Bank has been greeted with substantial media attention owing to the mistaken belief that it is Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state. Some Israelis believe that the aim of the wall is to prevent Palestinian fighters entering Israel. Others believe that it shows a new Israeli willingness to end the occupation, marking the boundaries of a new Palestinian state.

On the contrary, this wall is not marking a Palestinian state, but putting a concrete seal on the creation of Palestinian concentration camps. “Far from heralding the arrival of a new chapter in the history of Palestine, the erection of the fence is simply the continuation of an old policy through new means,” wrote Israeli professor Dr. Ilan Pappe, a longtime critic of Israeli apartheid from Haifa University. “This policy is that of erasing Palestine as a geographical, political and cultural entity from the map.” (Al Ahram Weekly, July 14)

As the mayor of Qalqilya showed journalists around the ghetto that was his town, we met a man whose home, next to the wall, was about to be destroyed. “They told me my house was built illegally and they will destroy it,” said the man, a father of young children, “Yet I have the official building permit signed by the Israelis.” Homes and shops have already been destroyed, while other Palestinians have found themselves on the wrong side of the wall, permanently cut off from the rest of Qalqilya.

A young boy scooted near the monstrosity on his motorcycle and a warning shot rang out. A primary school situated a few meters from the wall is still standing, but who will feel safe to send children to study next to a 10-foot high fence with Israeli snipers at regular intervals? And when the children have finished school, where will they go to find jobs with no permits to leave the boundaries of the town?

Water

Although Qalqilya is not featured in the news as towns such as Bethlehem and Ramallah, it is of vital strategic importance. Situated on the largest of three West Bank aquifers, for Israel, control of Qalqilya is vital in order to maintain access to the water resources available. 8 Israeli wells surround Qalqilya, digging far deeper than the level to which Palestinian wells are permitted to go. While the focus of public Israeli argument surrounds the status of the Jewish settlements, far more important to Israel is to retain control of valuable water resources in the West Bank, aquifers and the Jordan River.

The negotiations with Syria ended over a disagreement on access to the water of the Sea of Galilee, and today Israel is threatening war over water resources in southern Lebanon. Water is strategically far more important to the people living inside the 1948 Israeli borders than the lives of settlers. Yet Israel must maintain settlements in order to keep drawing vital water resources in the West Bank.

A Staged Plan

“Building a wall around us is the latest stage of the plan of isolation,” said Khaled Shanti, resident of Qalqilya, and General Secretary of the Farmers and Peasants Cooperative. “The first stage of the Israeli plan was to separate Qalqilya from other Palestinian towns by surrounding it with settlements.” Today there are 9 Jewish settlements around the city, making a contiguous Jewish population area with the strategically placed Jewish settlements on the other side of the 1948 border. “Israeli settlement policy has successfully erased the Green Line around Qalqilya.”

Shanti describes the placing of military security apparatus around Qalqilya as the second phase; highways patrolled 24 hrs by army and police vehicles, and the creation of permanent military camps (many based within the settlements). After this stage, the Israeli government was ready to implement the final phase of constructing the prison camp: the wall. “This was not an emergency response to attacks in Israel, but a carefully planned stage in the theft of our resources and the imprisonment of the people of Qalqilya… they have created a concentration camp for us.”

Israel began the first phase of the construction of the wall on June 16, near the village of Salem to the west of Jenin in the north. This section of the wall will reach Tulkarem, a barrier of 70 miles long, including fences, trenches and security patrols. It is difficult to plot exactly where the wall will be as the Israelis have not released a detailed overview of what will be built. Building walls in Jerusalem will prove most tricky for Israel as it tries to retain maximum land, yet isolate Palestinians. The 200,000 Jewish settlers in what is internationally recognized as Palestinian East Jerusalem make this an almost impossible task.

International Law?

Palestinian human rights organization “LAW” presented petitions to the Israeli Attorney General on behalf of Palestinians whose land will be confiscated in order to build the wall and security “buffer” zone around it. Lawyer Aazem Bishara argues that such confiscation is against international human rights law and the Geneva Conventions, but Palestinians are skeptical about any result. “They told us we had only a week to appeal,” said Qalqilya mayor, Mr. Maa’rouf Zahran, “yet it would take us three months to get copies of the relevant property documents from the authorities.” International law can only be applied if an international body is there to enforce it, and at the moment there is no sign of any international power preventing Israeli occupation.

Fear of Transfer

The residents of Qalqilya are planting new palm trees to replace those destroyed by Israeli tanks in the latest invasion. Despite the courage and determination of the people, it is hard to visit Qalqilya without being overwhelmed by a sense of foreboding. “Peace means justice and fairness, and can only be built in a situation of trust,” said Mayor Zahran. “A genuine peace will only come from the ground up, yet how will impoverished people be convinced to trust those who imprison them behind a ghetto wall?”

At the back of everybody’s mind is the fear of transfer for Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line. What will happen in a year or two when Palestinians in besieged cities like Qalqilya cannot physically survive in the ghetto? What might happen in a few months when the world is focused on a US/UK attack on Iraq? Jewish demographers have been stirring alarm in the Israeli community about the increasing percentage of Palestinians in comparison with Jewish Israelis. This evidence is used by politicians who publicly advocate the transfer of Palestinians from Israeli occupied areas. It is hard to see who would stop Sharon implementing a program of ethnic cleansing, a second Nakba (catastrophe). After all, it is undisputed that that is what he, and many other Israelis in power, would like.

Isabelle Humphries is a British freelance journalist and Development Director at Sawt Al Amel (Laborer’s Voice), an organization supporting Palestinian workers inside Israel. She has an MA in Middle East Politics and is also a freelance writer for the Cairo Times. You can reach her at innazareth@yahoo.co.uk

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