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Another
Kind of Road Map
Living on
the Edge
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Should the Palestinians collaborate with their own extinction?
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The
road curves out, its path like a long brown snake, slithering
through virgin mountainsides, turning olive groves into concrete
slabs. It’s guarded by armed border police squatting on rocky
outposts, positioned every 25 meters along the route. Bulldozers
roar, churning up savage clouds of red dust, while earthmovers
delve into volcano-like ditches that herald the beginning of a
25ft high razor fence. A young donkey with a foal in tow
hesitates before the ditch, unable to proceed further and
obviously confused, its familiar journey no longer possible.
There is no path for man or beast.
Large
tracts of fertile land stand marooned and forcibly abandoned,
their owners denied access. Patches of old green canvas, once a
carpet for the olives, lie scattered here and there, together
with remnants of perhaps what was once the scene of a picnic
celebration. Olive trees harvested for centuries now bare their
upturned roots to the sky. Plants and herbs long used in
traditional Palestinian cuisine wither in the dry grass.
Aside
from the presence of Israeli police and Palestinian laborers,
there is not a villager in sight. This is the scene of the
construction of a small section of Israel’s “Separation
Wall,” encircling the beautiful old northern Palestinian
village of Qafin, near Tulkarem. Like hundreds of other
villagers, the residents of Qafin are devastated as they
helplessly witness the confiscation of their lands and the
destruction of the olive groves. A small scene from a larger
picture.
The
Fortifications
The
inconceivable is becoming a reality. |
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When
the news broke in 2002 of Israel’s intention to build a Wall,
whimsically referred to by the Israeli government as “a
fence,” stretching the length and breadth of occupied
Palestinian lands to separate Israelis and illegal Jewish
settlers from Palestinians in the West Bank, some thought it a
joke. Memories came to mind, the Great Wall of China, and of
course the Berlin wall with its ominous connotations. But this
Wall is twice as high, and potentially thirty times as long.
Israel was not joking.
The
inconceivable is becoming a reality. Israel began building the
Wall in earnest in June 2002. Even the term “wall” is
misleading, for to be more precise it is a 25ft high concrete
Wall, some 70 meters wide, including depth barriers, forming a
no-man’s land, accompanied by electric “smart” fences,
razor wire, trenches, security patrols and electronic gates. On
the eastern Palestinian side are trenches, to act as a barrier
against vehicles, a two-lane army patrol road, and then another
fence. According to Israel’s State Attorney’s office, five
main crossing points and 26 agricultural crossings will be
established along the length of the Wall. However, it appears
insufficient funds were allocated in the 2003 budget to erect
even the main crossing points.
The
separation rhetoric is an extension of
Israel
’s campaign of forcible, unilateral separation and
expulsion. |
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The
reason given for these massive fortifications is that old adage,
Israel’s “security.” All else had failed to quench
Palestinian resistance to the Occupation: preemptive
assassinations of Palestinian leaders, imprisonment [currently
over 6,000 political prisoners, with 345 under the age of 18
years], arbitrary detentions, torture, and the murder of over
2,000 civilians, including 571 children over the past 33 months.
Every effort to squeeze and suffocate the Palestinians through
the continued expansion of settlements, the theft of thousands
of dunums of land, had failed. So the building of the Wall is
based on the premise that by locking in and locking down the
entire Palestinian population, Israel would become a safer
place, more like that God-given retreat envisaged by the early
Zionists. This is despite the fact that such security barriers
fail to achieve their purpose, as illustrated by the complete
security barrier surrounding the Gaza Strip. Gazans have proven
themselves capable of entering Israel whenever, but the Israeli
government proceeds with the concept of enforced separation from
the West Bank, and with a vengeance.
If
the northern section of the Wall, itself built at a cost of
roughly $2 billion ($1 million per km) is to set the future
permanent boundaries of the State of Israel, it certainly does
not follow the internationally recognized 1967 temporary borders
of the Green Line. The boundary between Israel and Occupied
Palestine is approximately 350km long, so why, one may ask, does
the route of the proposed Wall stretch to 1000km? The answer: It
follows a circular route. It plunges into existing Palestinian
lands, meandering here and there in pursuit of its victims. It
cuts into existing villages, frequently leaving villagers on the
one side, their lands and water resources on the other,
separating them from larger towns and major public services,
hospitals, health clinics, and schools. It ensnares some
villages between the western border of the Wall and the 1967
Green Line.
In
deference to the illegal Jewish settlers, the Wall digresses to
transfer clusters of settlements, including Kedumin, Immanuel
and Ariel into Israel proper, snatching important subterranean
water reservoirs in the process. The settlers are determined
that the Wall incorporates most of them into Israel, no matter
how far their settlements are from the Green Line. There are
231,443 illegal settlers living in the West Bank and Gaza, with
an increase of 5,415 since the beginning of 2003. Settlements
currently take up 1.6% of the total land of the West Bank.
However, together with the road networks, they control 46% of
Palestinian land.
The
Plan
The
lives of 210,000 Palestinians in 67 villages and towns
will be directly affected. |
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The
first section of the Wall runs from Salem in the north to
Qalandia in the south. In its entirety, it is expected to see
the confiscation of some 160,000-180,000 dunums (45,000 acres),
2% of the entire West Bank, the uprooting of 80,000 olive trees,
the destruction of 35 kilometers of water pipes and the
demolition of dozens of greenhouses. Any structure or home
within 35 meters of the barrier will be demolished.
Simply
from its first section in northern Palestine, B’Tselem (an
Israeli human rights organization) was able to estimate that the
lives of 210,000 Palestinians in 67 villages and towns within
the Wall’s radius would be directly affected. At least 30
villages will lose part of their lands. The built up areas of at
least 15 villages will be east of the Wall, their lands on the
Israeli side. The second proposed section (southern) would
stretch from Bethlehem to Hebron, and a third smaller section
would surround Jericho. Finally, a further section will
completely seal off the Jordan valley to the east, thus cutting
Palestine off from the rest of the Arab world.
The
city of Tulkarem will be separated from the West Bank, on its
western side near the Green Line by fences and walls and on the
side of the West Bank by a depth barrier, sealing in the town
and Tulkarem refugee camp (16,259 registered refugees). More
than one-third of Qalqilya’s town land, the most important
agricultural basket in the West Bank, has been confiscated. The
town is completely encircled by the Wall, and gates overlooked
by a watchtower control the flow in and out - one person or
vehicle at a time. The Wall will meander across the fields of
300 farmers, and 1,000 farmers will lose significant portions of
land to the western side. In one such village, Jayyous, where
the Wall deviates up to 6km from the Green Line (to absorb
settlements), it ensnares 500 Palestinian homes, terminating
residents’ access to their land, and grazing for their
animals. Another irony: According to Ottoman law, if the land is
not utilized for a period of three years, it reverts to the
State - the State of Israel naturally.
A
New Breed of Refugees?
Israel
is planning to build two walls around
Jerusalem
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Plans
for the Jerusalem Section of the Wall will carve in concrete
Israel’s illegal annexation of the Holy city, and include the
annexation of at least 15 settlements, including the massive
colony of Ma’aleh Adumim, and Modi’in Illit and Betar Illit.
Given that 50% of the settlers live in East Jerusalem, much of
the land to be confiscated will be transferred to these
colonies, placing the Palestinian neighborhoods of the city in
limbo, as with the areas in the north. The route will entail the
entrapment of some 276,000 Palestinians from the village of Kfar
Aqab and Qalandia refugee camp, whose residents carry Jerusalem
Identity cards. In order to resolve this demographic problem,
Israel is planning to build two walls around Jerusalem. The
first will be built around Israel’s defined municipal borders.
The second will surround these residents, cutting them off from
both the West Bank and Jerusalem. The exact route of the walls
has not been made public, but students of al-Quds University are
currently enrolling from a tent in its football field, as the
threatened construction will gorge on one third of the
university’s land. Not surprisingly, there is a sudden flurry
of local football matches.
An
ironic thought: Successive Israeli governments have claimed
their right to an exclusive Jewish “homeland,” yet the
logistics of the Wall, while leaving Palestinians with only 10%
of their historic homeland, will draw in some 400,000
Palestinians, stranded on the Israeli/wrong side of the Wall,
the buffer zone. They will literally be abducted from the West
Bank. They will be granted neither Israeli citizenship nor free
access into Israel, and will need a special permit to visit the
West Bank. They may well be shot in the attempt to do so. Again,
according to the Two State solution, this will create a new
breed of refugees in Israel. One can only speculate as to their
future.
An
Unmitigated Disaster
Palestinians
live at the whim of Israel’s boy soldiers, the
greatest enthusiasts of “shoot to kill.” |
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As
with other oppressive Israeli policies towards the Palestinian
people since 1967, certain features concerning the Wall are
simply ingenious. How is the land to be confiscated? Notice to
the landowner to appear in Court! Alternatively, the owner may
wake up one day to find a notice posted on his trees, or simply
dropped on this land; a lifetime’s work, a generation’s
heritage, terminated by a scrap of paper. Requisition is always
for military needs, order signed by the Military Commander,
which no Israeli Court would dream of reversing.
In
some cases trapping the Palestinians and depriving their farmers
of their only means of survival is not enough. In the northern
village of Zita, reports emerge of farmers being beaten as they
await the opening of the electronic gate No 542 by border
police. If anyone dares touch the fence, the gate will not be
opened at all that day, as a punishment. In other areas,
stretches of sand await the arrival of telltale footprints.
In
2002 unemployment reached 70%, poverty 55%. |
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The
Wall itself is merely an extension of the policies of countless
checkpoints and closures imposed by Israel on Palestinian
freedom of movement since the mid-1990s. The separation rhetoric
is not a reflection of a real geographic or historical divide
between the two peoples, but rather an extension of Israel’s
continued campaign of forcible, unilateral separation and
expulsion plans that violate Palestinian human rights and in
complete disregard of the concept of national sovereignty for
the Palestinians.
The
construction of the first section of the Wall has proved itself
an unmitigated social, economic and environmental disaster. It
compounds existing Israel practices of restrictions of movement,
bringing even higher unemployment and poverty, high
psychological stress and increasing health problems. Life under
siege, living without any degree of personal security, living at
the whim of Israel’s boy soldiers, the greatest enthusiasts of
“shoot to kill,” living in an open-air prison and struggling
to maintain your family and educate your children. Living, in
fact, on the edge.
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Palestinians cart their belongings past the omnipresent Wall |
Thirty-five
years of Israel’s brutal Occupation has turned the state of
the Palestinian economy into yet another disaster. The past two
years of the Intifada have seen an acceleration of horrific
policies; bombardments from air-raids, the use of tank fire, and
missiles have left many Palestinian cities as scenes of war-torn
areas, now facing further degradation. The nature of the
occupation created a source of cheap labor; now that workforce
is back on the unemployment pile. Many villages will be denied
access either to purchase or sell goods and produce. Qalqilya is
the major producer of fruit and vegetables in the entire West
Bank; in 2002 unemployment reached 70%, the level of poverty
55%, based on three dollars or less consumption per day.
The
natural resources of the West Bank continue to be a major
casualty of the Occupation. The most critical impact of the Wall
will be felt through the loss of agricultural land, and the
destruction of the trees and water supply. Every aspect of the
microclimate will be displaced. In villages around Tulkarem and
Qalqilya, 30 artisan wells have been lost, 18% of the
Palestinian share of the Western Groundwater Basin. This drains
the already scarce water supplies, as for every 10 liters
allocated (by Israel) to the Palestinian, 50 liters are
allocated to the illegal Jewish settler.
Israeli
settlers annually discharge 224,000 tons of waste into
Palestine, polluting village streams and farms. The land is
treasured by the Palestinian farmer, and trees play a vital role
in preserving the environment and ecological balance of the
area. The olive tree is a basic part of the Palestinian
landscape, culture and heritage, yet 250,000 olive and other
fruit trees have been destroyed over the past two years.
Israeli
settlers annually discharge 224,000 tons of waste into
Palestine
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The
Wall should also be viewed against a background of other
concrete necklaces that suffocate Palestine. The Trans-Israeli
Highway, which runs from north to south through a 17% swathe of
the West Bank, has a buffer zone the width of three football
pitches on either side. This Highway compliments the 250 miles
of the exclusive settler-only road system, which crisscrosses
the West Bank. Its creation, as with the Wall, was only made
possible through the demolition of Palestinian homes and the
virtual desertification of Palestinian land. In April 2003,
UNRWA reported that since the beginning of the Intifada in
September 2000, 12,237 Palestinians had witnessed the demolition
of their homes.
As
with all of Israel’s policies and actions, the construction of
the Wall violates Article 47, of the Fourth Geneva Convention,
which prohibits the annexation of land. Moreover any destruction
of real or personal property by the Occupying power is
prohibited except where it is “rendered absolutely necessary
for military operations.” Israel argues that the Wall is built
for “security purposes,” not military. However, the life of
the entire Palestinian population is being impacted, and
international humanitarian law forbids collective punishment.
But Israel is a master of ignoring international law and the
United Nations with impunity, and countless UN resolutions
concerning Israel simply gather dust.
Extinction
The
Wall will draw some 400,000 Palestinians into
Israel
, literally abducting them from the
West Bank
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It
should be irrevocably clear that Israel not only intends to
vanquish the Palestinian people, but is also intent upon their
“disappearance” by one means or another. It is exactly like
this for all captive people. Should the Palestinians collaborate
with their own extinction? Should they close their eyes,
pretending that they are invisible, and melt into a landscape
that is, itself, disappearing?
Where
are the international and regional expressions of outrage, the
screams of protest from Arab States over this most historic and
disastrous development since 1948: Israel’s Separation Wall?
On
July 25, 2003, in a joint news conference with Palestinian Prime
Minister Mahmoud Abbas, George Bush stated that the Separation
Wall “is a problem.” The blandness of language reminiscent
of a time when “settlements were an obstacle to peace” (now
it’s Arafat who is the obstacle), and look what has happened
since! Bush added, “it is very difficult to develop confidence
between the Palestinians and Israel with a wall snaking through
the West Bank.” In the same breath Bush stated, “We must
improve the daily lives of the ordinary Palestinians.” And,
one assumes by deduction, making the lives of the unordinary,
those who continue to resist the occupation, a living hell.
Again, US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice raised her
concerns with Sharon, “The route of the security fence that
you are building arouses our deep concern,” and “I propose
that you reconsider the route where the ‘fence’ passes.”
Sharon rebuffed Rice’s comments. Even if western leaders had
been quick off the mark concerning the Wall’s construction, it
is doubtful if Sharon would have changed his Zionist goal posts.
The
Wall will make the establishment of a viable, thriving
Palestinian State virtually impossible and it will achieve no
security advantage for Israel. It will further impoverish the
Palestinian community, and for some, provide the ultimate
challenge. Its unimpeded construction reflects the failure of
the peace process over the past ten years, the abject failure of
American policy, and the failure of the international community
to live up to its moral and legal obligations. There is nothing
in the mentality of Ariel Sharon and his ilk that cares for a
solution based on justice for the Palestinians.
Yet
George Bush and his clique continue to pour billions of dollars
into Israel, funding Israel’s military apparatus, its
settlements, and now the construction of the Wall. Its
foundations entirely overshadow the road map to peace. Unless
urgent action is taken to oblige Israel to remove every trace
and fabric of the Wall and facilitate the rehabilitation of the
Palestinian people and their land for the horrific damage they
have suffered, the consequences will bring a human and
ecological catastrophe of nightmarish quality. Should this
occur, we would all pay the price.
Christine
M. Lane can be reached at ChristineLane2002@yahoo.com.
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