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Just a Wall? by Tim Morris

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Just a Wall? by Tim Morris 30 PALESTINIAN DISPLACEMENT FMR 26 Just a wall? by Tim Morris According to Israel the West Bank Barrier is a security ICJ declared not just the Wall but the measure. Opponents argue that it is set to become a gate system and the permits illegal, the UN and NGOs are not applying de facto border, pre-empting final status negotiations for permits for their local staff, between Israel and the Palestinians and incorporating thereby jeopardising their ability to illegal settlements into Israel. continue mobile health services and supplementary food distribution. The Israeli government began it to the Green Line. However, building the Separation Wall in the international community has If, as many suspect, Israel intends June 2002. Now half-completed, it is taken no substantive action to the Wall to become its permanent projected to run for almost 700km. stop the construction of the Wall international border, the seam zone Almost 75% of its total length is inside in occupied Palestinian territory. will be formally annexed by Israel. the West Bank, rather than along There is speculation that, instead of the Green Line, the internationally- The lands between the Wall and offering seam zone residents Israeli recognised border between the state the Green Line have been declared citizenship, they will be exchanged of Israel and the West Bank. In some by Israel as a ‘seam zone’ where all for an equal number of Jewish settlers areas – notably in occupied East residents and landowners must obtain who will relocate behind the Wall. Jerusalem and around the Palestinian a permit to remain in their homes city of Qalqilya – the Wall is an and on their lands. When the Wall is eight-metre-high structure of solid finished some 65,000 Palestinians will The Wall itself takes the West concrete. Twice the height of the require permits to cross the Wall into Bank’s most valuable agricultural Berlin Wall, many of these sections the rest of the West Bank. In areas lands and water resources, along have armed sniper towers every 300 where it is completed, schoolchildren with Palestinian East Jerusalem. metres. Elsewhere it is part concrete, living in the seam zone and attending Settlement expansion to the east of part fence. It is surrounded by a schools on the Palestinian side and the Wall and Israeli control over the buffer zone with trenches, barbed farmers wishing to go to market have Jordan Valley will take more of the wire, electrified fencing, thermal to queue up awaiting the arrival of lands and resources necessary for imaging, video cameras, aerial an Israeli military jeep to come and a future Palestinian state. Without drones and other security measures. open the gate. Gates generally close access to these vital land and at four o’clock in the afternoon. water resources, or the Palestinian The Wall cuts deep into the West Palestinian ambulances are not capital East Jerusalem, there can Bank – one section penetrates 14km allowed to enter the seam zone. Some be no viable Palestinian state. into Palestinian territory – in order Palestinians who have not renewed Without a viable Palestinian state, to envelop Israel’s extensive network their Israeli-issued ID cards are now there can be no viable peace. of settlements and their planned permanently trapped inside the seam expansion areas. Fifty-six Jewish zone, afraid that if they go through Negotiations Affairs Department, settlements – home to over 170,000 the gate into the West Bank they will Palestine Liberation Organization settlers – will lie between the Wall be barred from returning to their and the Green Line. When the families. Fearful for their security, additional Jewish settlements in East some parents have stopped sending Tim Morris is one of the Editors of Jerusalem are taken into contact, three their daughters to school on the FMR. Email: [email protected] quarters of the 425,000 settlers will other side of the Wall. Because the be living behind the Wall. If current Information in this article plans are implemented the Wall will is derived from: annex 10% of the territory of the West Bank. The total construction n Humanitarian Emergency Policy cost is over $2 billion – six times Group www.humanitarianinfo. the annual budget of UNRWA. org/opt/docs/UN/OCHA/ OCHABarRprt-Updt6-En.pdf The Wall has been the subject of four UN resolutions, one – vetoed n B'tselem www.btselem.org/ by the US – in the Security Council English/Separation_Barrier/ and three in the General Assembly. In July 2004 the General Assembly n Address by Ray Dolphin overwhelmingly reaffirmed the (author of The West Bank Wall: judgement of the International Court Unmaking Palestine, March of Justice that the wall is in violation 2006, ISBN: 0745324339) www. of international law and called on thejerusalemfund.org/images/ Israel to demolish it or relocate fortherecord.php?ID=278 Paul Jeffrey/ACT International Jeffrey/ACT Paul.
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