Are there any efforts by the Palestinian cabinet to halt the building of the wall?
What is the role of Arab governments in all this? Is their silence intentional or are they merely just ignoring the issue?
Answer
The issue of the wall was not talked about with the Palestinian Authority. It was a decision taken unilaterally by the Israeli government.
The municipality, by the name of the people, sent objections to the Israeli Knesset and the Minister of Defense. Ben Elazer replied to us saying that the wall is for security reasons. We managed to obtain a court order to stop the construction for three weeks, yet the contractor did not respect the order and continued the construction. We also spoke to Mr. Koffi Annan and all the representatives of the EU. About 30 delegates came to the town and they reported on the situation to their governments. We also had delegations from the American administration, two delegates from the quartet also was here also, British Parliamentarians were also here.
This wall is being funded by the US. We only stand now with more complications for the people.
Name
Mido
- United Kingdom
Profession
Question
Assalamualaikum,
Will the erection of the wall finally end the dream of a two state solution? Due to to the huge amount of land being annexed by the Zionist entity, and is any support for a one state solution amongst the Palestinians and the various Palestinian factions?
Answer
This is not a separation wall, as the Israelis say, between two states. It is the separation between the Palestinians and their farms, Palestinians and their universities, Palestinians and their work places. It is a separation between the village and the town, and a separation among villages. This wall is within the master plans of our cities and towns. It is like putting a wall in the midst of your neighbor’s living room.
If the wall is on the green line or on the international border, we would have accepted it. But this wall means destruction for our economy, educational system, our health services, and all our civil services. It is a violation of the road map and all other previous agreements. No peace negotiations or peace agreements can ever be reached with the situation the wall has now created on the ground.
One state solution is accepted if we have the same rights as the Israelis. We raised this issue in 1976. A one-state solution is still not accepted by the Israelis in spite of our openness to it as Palestinians.
Name
Ahmad
- Egypt
Profession
Question
My question is to the activist. First of all please allow me to greet you on the fine job you and many others are doing, leaving your homes and traveling thousands of miles just to be with people in need. My question is about the campaign itself. What was the Israeli reaction to it on the ground? What inside stories can you tell us that are not often read in the news?
Answer
The Israeli response to our presence has become increasingly violent in comparison to the way it was in the beginning. Now we are also met by rubber bullets, teargas, and even live ammunition. Several members of the International Solidarity Movement have been shot, a few of them have been seriously wounded and two have been killed. So it is getting more and more difficult and dangerous to work here.
Yet people still come every week to support the Palestinians and the situation we see on the ground is a lot worse than what is shown on TV.
I had a personal experience in this field. I was traveling from Abu Dees to Qalandia, there was a road lock and we were forced to go through a tunnel, and we came to the other side and there was a little girl coming from the other direction, she was perhaps 8 years old. Up on the road there were Israeli soldiers, they were shouting and aiming at the girl. Yet she went through the tunnel and did not stop. To me that showed the typical everyday life of a Palestinian. The girl risked her life and simply ignored the soldiers because she had to go to school.
Name
widya
- Indonesia
Profession
Question
Assalamualaikum brother..
Im in Indonesia,..what can u suggest us here to do something concerning this matter?.
Answer
There are thousands of things to do. You just need a little imagination. I can give you some examples of what we do in Sweden. We boycott Israeli products and we try to get other people to boycott. We do fund raising campaigns. We sell Palestinian products like Kufia. We arrange demonstrations. We give lectures to inform everyone about the reality of the situation, we write articles in newspapers, all to try to make people in our country understand what is happening in Palestine. And we travel to Palestine to work here directly with the Palestinian people against the occupation.
Name
Saeed
- Bahrain
Profession
Question
What is the nature of the tight security checks that are conducted at the gates of the wall? Like it is clear that Qalqilya is now choked with the wall on all sides except one, what does the remaining side look like? What are the things that the Israelis search for at the gates in order to decide whether a Palestinian should be allowed to pass or not?
Answer
First of all, there are two gates: one is completely closed and the other one is only opened fifteen minutes at a time, three times per day. Most of the time, it is mostly completely closed. And the nature of the checking is random, I see it that the only purpose of these checks is to make life difficult and to control the farmers. So, the wall issue is about control and maintaining the occupation, not about the security, making life ever more difficult for the average Palestinian. This is what I see as an international activist with my own eyes.
Name
Nora
-
Profession
Question
I understand that, especially in Qalqilya, 50% of the land has been confiscated from the farmers for the building of the wall. How do the farmers get on with their lives?
Answer
Frederik:
The situation in Israel is desperate for the farmers because they have lost so much land, and much of their land is outside the fence and they cannot reach it. So they plan to grow other crops such as Mushrooms, for example. I mean it is a very difficult thing.
Mr. Zahran:
As we have an alternative for people, we wrote to the United Nations. We managed to have food for 15,500 from the UNRWA monthly. Then we also have about 1500 families, they have food fund from the Red Cross. Then there are another 500 families who receive food fund from Islamic and Arab countries. We are now trying to have some fund for job creation projects. So we look forward to having fund for job creation projects as unemployment in the town is 67%. And we have about 6000 workers not allowed to go out of the town for their work.
Name
Leila
- France
Profession
Question
I often hear of a “demographic problem” that the wall is likely to create. What is that demographic problem? And why is it dangerous?
Answer
Mr. Zahran:
I think that Qalqilya is the nearest town to the middle of Israel, and the population of the town, along with its nearby villages, is about 90 thousand people. The nearby settlements around the town are about 23 settlements, inhabited by 54 thousand settlers. One of the reasons of constructing this wall is to extend the settlement and oblige the citizens of Qalqilya to leave. It is the strategy of transfer; it is the strategy of Rahbaam Zeifi and Sharon himself. As in the Qalqilya area, we have more than 25% of the settlers of the West Bank. Therefore, it is clear that their strategy is to make people leave. They know that in 2020 the population of the Palestinians in the Palestinian territories and Israel will be more than 50%. And this is why they think it is dangerous if Palestinians were to stay in their lands. They go on their aggressive policy to oblige people to leave.
Frederik:
What the wall does is that it creates isolated enclaves that are separated from each other. In the case of Qalqilya, for example, the entire Qalqilya district is being destroyed and strangled. This will lead to people leaving the town and the area as a whole. So this will result in transfer; people are being forced to move because they have no possibility of leading normal lives inside those isolated violent enclaves. This is in fact a form of ethnic cleansing, and it will affect the demographic situation in all of Palestine because if this development is not stopped, the number of Palestinians will continue to drop.
