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Hidden with code "Policy Violation" |
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News :: Regime |
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Israel's Indecent Apartheid-Wall |
Current rating: 0 |
by Karen Nakamura repost by DAN "Posted to the Local Newswire, Because I Want This to be Hidden" Disinfo
(No verified email address) |
01 Sep 2003
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You've seen it on TV, that shining run of steel stretching miles. It's the wall being built around the West Bank by Israel. Like the Warsaw Ghetto Wall, the Israeli Defense Force is using security concerns as an excuse to maintain an apartheid state. What's hard to comprehend is the scope of devastation the wall will inflict. |
To get the facts, we dug into a report from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA, (un.org/unrwa), presented to the Security Council under "Special Report on the West Bank Security Barrier, Phase One." UNRWA is the largest and oldest refugee program in the world. It cares for over 4 million Palestinians in a number of Middle East countries and has a staff of 24,000 people.
Recently, UNRWA sent representatives on field trips to gauge the effect of the wall on the livelihoods of Palestinians, especially registered refugees under their care. The report was compiled in the context of 50 years of hands-on experience. The opening statement follows:
"The greatest change in the landscape of the West Bank since 1967 is underway. Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees will have their access to farmland, schools, clinics, markets and towns denied by the security barrier now under construction. Hundreds of thousands of dunums, [approximately 1/4 acre], are being swallowed by the fence itself and thousands more will be trapped between the new barrier and the Green Line."
The Green Line is the pre-1967 border between the Israel and Palestine and considered the proverbial line in the sand. Israel is building the wall along this line ostensibly to create peace by keeping Palestinians out. It insists the wall is a security barrier only and has nothing to do with politics. However, at absolutely no point does it follow Israel's side of the Green Line. All property being confiscated is Palestinian and consists of 2.9% of the West Bank. Of that, 160,000 dunums are some of the West Bank's most fertile soil. Those two facts alone have the makings of a war even if the Israelis pull back to the barrier. It's due to be finished this summer.
The Wall is not entirely a futuristic running fence. Some areas are a series of fences, obstacles and hurdles. It will run 350 kilometers, approximately 220 miles, and begin near Zuba in the northwestern corner of the Jenin Governate. It then roughly travels the Green Line through the Tulkarm district to the Elkana settlement in Southern Qalqiliya.
Plans show five, main crossing-points into Israel and 26 agricultural crossings. The problem is insufficient funds have been allocated to erect main crossing points. As the Mayor of Qafu told the UN inspection team, while plans show an agricultural crossing point in his town, "There are no openings in the completed concrete part of the barrier."
The average depth of the wall will be 70 meters, [approximately 230 feet], but in some places will reach 100 meters. In its most extreme, it will include an electronic "Smart Fence" in the center that will emit warnings of a breach. On the eastern, Palestinian side, a trench will add an obstacle against vehicles, then a fence for delay. Next to it will be a patrol service road and another fence. On the Israeli/western side of the Smart Fence, but still within Palestine, will be one of a number of "trace paths" to disclose footprints, a two lane patrol road and a road for armored vehicles and another fence.
Rumored reports say a buffer-zone will extent into Palestine. The wall itself will be dotted with watch towers and entry gates. There is also an exclusion zone, a no-man's land, for those caught between the wall and the Green Line. An additional "depth barrier" will be constructed where the Green Line follows 1948 borders. As the report states, "This is a barrier without a fence, whose objective is to channel movement in those areas to a number of security monitoring points."
Palestinians are given no effective voice, either at the municipal level or as individual property owners. And some of these owners have titles going back to the Ottoman Empire. The only notices were flyers distributed on the property about to be confiscated. Compensation for confiscated lands is 10% of value. While there have been meetings with the Israel Defense Force, nothing has been reversed. Palestinians are reluctant to accept compensation because it will legitimize the confiscation. They also worry about access to their agricultural lands because of an obscure Ottoman law that if land near a populated place is unused for three years, Miri land, the title reverts to the state, i.e., Israel.
Nearly 70 towns and refugee camps are effected. That's more than 200,000 people. Most Green Line towns include refugees who fled Israel. There are five towns composed mainly of refugees, including Qalqiliya, with 4,000 families, a UNRWA hospital and other facilities. It will, effectively, be "hermetically sealed."
Tulkarm, with its 3,700 families, will have a wall constructed on its Western side and a "depth barrier" on its east. A deep trench will also surround the town. This will seal off the town and land immediately surrounding it, including the Tulkarm refugee camp with 15,600 registered refugees and Nur Shams with 8,000. In the northwest district of Jenin, another "depth barrier" will isolate three villages with large refugee numbers.
In Jal’ud, many inhabitants are originally from Zakur just across the Green Line in Israel. The wall will cut off 250-300 dunums of land and re-unite the two villages. However, villagers from Jal’ud will be isolated from their families in Zakur because Jal’ud has been declared a Closed Military Zone. Residents will need special permits to exit, endure searches and experience long delays. The sole checkpoint will be open only for certain periods and can be closed without warning. There is no indication of how access to fields will be granted. In addition, demolition orders have been issued for three homes and a mosque built without permits, even though no building permits have been issued since 1978. Jal’ud will lose fruit trees, vegetable gardens, an apple farm and the water reservoir will be affected.
By severing access to thousands of acres of some of the West Bank's best land and water resources, the Wall will have terrible consequences for agriculture. Already, there is 42% unemployment in West Bank agriculture and 53% unemployment in the water-sector. Thirty wells in the Qalqiliya and Tulkarm districts will be lost. The town of Qalqiliya will lose 19. That's 30% of the town's water supply. In contrast, of the 52 effected locations, only five are Israeli.
We haven't even touched on the loss of businesses or the lack of medical care in the no-man's land. One statistic stands out however.
In Zuba, population 2,000, 240 of the 280 families are UN registered refugees. In the 1949 agreement, Zuba lost 18,000 dunums. In 1959, it lost an additional 2,000 and 26 in 1999 due to construction of an Israeli military base. So far this year it has lost 33 to the trench being built around it. That trench is 11/2 meters (5 feet) wide and 2 meters (6.5 feet) deep. In December of 2002, papers strewn about the village said 250 dunums would be taken. Despite protests, on March 10, 2003, bulldozers began leveling orchards.
This is exactly the same procedure the Nazis took in the Warsaw Ghetto, grabbing bite after bite over the years until nothing was left standing except the wall and the jail.
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