Mennonite Central Committee Peace Office Publication July–September 2004 Volume 34, Number 3 Walling Off the Future for Palestinians and Israelis
IN THIS ISSUE The Iron Wall of Separation
3 A Wall against the Possibility by Alain Epp Weaver of a Palestinian State, by Alain Epp Weaver We must either suspend our settlement and access to water resources; the story of a efforts or continue them without paying Palestinian Christian family in Beit Sahour 5 Israel’s Unilateral Separation attention to the mood of the natives. Settle- practically surrounded by multiple fences; Plan, by Jad Isaac ment can thus develop under the protection reflections by a Palestinian and by an Israeli 7 The Israeli View of the of a force that is not dependent on the local about why this barrier will not contribute population, behind an iron wall that they to peace and reconciliation but will instead Separation Wall, will be powerless to break down. intensify injustice and enmity. by Jeff Halper —ZE’EV JABOTINSKY In order to understand the current separa- 8 A Gated Community? tion wall, however, the wall must be viewed by Ed Nyce armers in Jayyous village unable to in historical context. The construction of Fget their sheep to pasture. Residents of 9 The Palestinian Fear of the “separation wall” under the government Falameh village looking on while their trees of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon can Thirst, by Jad Isaac wither. An owner of a chicken farm in be understood as an extension of the “iron Qalqilya unable to reach his animals for 11 The Wall, by Samia Khoury wall” strategy advocated by Ze’ev Jabotin- three days, and their subsequent death. sky, the early-1900s leader of the revisionist The villagers of Budrus demonstrating non- stream of Zionism, the ideological forerun- violently to prevent Israeli bulldozers from ner of Sharon’s Likud party. A historical uprooting their olive trees. Farmers in Habla perspective also reminds us that the separa- worrying about continued access to water. tion wall is only the latest in a series of legal and physical walls Israel has erected against These are only a handful of examples of the indigenous population. Palestinian communities that are being devas- tated by the complex barrier cutting deep into In reality, the Holy the West Bank that Israel calls a “security A Look at History Land does not need fence” but that the rest of the world names, Jabotinsky’s rhetoric of the “iron wall” must variously, a “separation wall,” an “apartheid walls, but bridges. be understood in the context of the chal- wall,” a “segregation zone.” A complex net- lenges that faced the Zionist movement in —POPE JOHN PAUL II work of fences with features such as elec- the early 20th century. Zionism, a late form tronic sensors, electric fencing, barbed wire, of European nationalism that arose at the patrol roads, and concrete walls that reach end of the 19th century, believed that life for eight or nine meters, the barrier both resem- Jews as minority communities in Europe was bles and—many fear—serves as a de facto untenable and unsustainable (a conviction border. Psychologically and metaphorically, that would be reinforced by the horrific the barrier functions as a very real wall, a genocide inflicted on European Jewry during dividing wall that is both the product of and the 1930s and 1940s). Just as the “French itself engenders enmity (Eph. 2:1–12). nation” had France, so the “Jewish nation” Contributors to this issue of the Peace required a Jewish state. Office Newsletter tackle different dimen- The challenge, for the Zionist movement, sions of the separation wall: its impact on consisted in obtaining territory where a Jew- the Palestinian economy, agricultural sector, ish majority might be secured. The problem lessly bang its head until it acquiesced to the A Viable was, however, that there already was an existence of the Jewish state; once that hap- Palestinian State? indigenous Arab population in that section pened, Jabotinsky continued, the Jewish of the Ottoman Empire known as Palestine. state could negotiate about limited recogni- The Road Map promoted by the If anyone in Europe believed the rhetoric of tion of Arab civil and national rights. United States, the United Nations, the European Union, and Russia “a land without a people for a people with- out a land,” such belief was quickly and nec- As Israeli, Palestinian, and other historians calls for the phased establishment have documented, the war of 1948, which of a viable Palestinian state along- essarily dispelled upon arrival in Palestine: side Israel. The separation wall, the land was not empty, and there were led to the creation of the state of Israel, which cuts deep into West Bank ter- native Palestinian Arab communities involved the dispossession of hundreds of ritory, diverging significantly from throughout the land, from the Galilee in the thousands of Palestinians. Over 700,000 the 1949 Armistice Line (the Green north down to the Negev desert in the south. Palestinians were expelled by Israeli troops Line), places this vision in jeopardy, or fled in fear during the fighting, ending up as does the “disengagement plan” Establishing a Jewish state in Palestine, as refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the promoted by Israeli Prime Minister Zionist leaders came to understand, would Gaza Strip, and the West Bank: Israel barred Ariel Sharon, which envisions the necessarily mean a violent imposition on the these refugees from returning. dismantling of settlements in the native population. Creating a Jewish state in Gaza Strip, along with a minimal some or all of the portion of the Ottoman Tens of thousands of Palestinians who number in the West Bank, in remained in Israel were classified by the new exchange for U.S. recognition that Empire that came under British control (“Mandate Palestine”) would have to mean Jewish state as “present absentees,” their large Israeli settlement blocs in the lands turned over, along with the lands of occupied territories will become part the displacement of at least some of the of Israel in any final status agree- native population; otherwise, Jews would the Palestinian refugees outside Israel, to the ment. These developments call into not be a majority in the “Jewish state” and Israeli “Custodian for Absentee Property.” question the fate of a two-state would simply be replicating the minority Through force, a Jewish state had been cre- solution based on the Green Line, existence of the Diaspora. ated, and an “iron wall” of military might for the wall and the proposed disen- and discriminatory legislation kept Palestini- gagement plan are creating de facto Zionist leaders from the left and the right ans separated from their lands. borders for discontiguous cantons spoke of the need to “transfer” some or all that will lack meaningful social, of the native Arab population. The leading While Israel’s victory in the 1967 war gained political, or economic viability. labor Zionist Berl Katznelson in the late territory—East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank from Jordan, the Gaza Strip and Many Palestinians believe that the 1930s explained his support for forcibly minimal requirements for the via- uprooting Palestinian Arabs by arguing that the Sinai from Egypt, the Golan Heights bility of a future Palestinian state “A distant neighbor is better than a close from Syria—it also brought with it a diffi- include the land area of the West enemy. They will not suffer through the cult dilemma. The left and the right of the Bank (including East Jerusalem) and transfer, and we most certainly will not.” Israeli political spectrum (not the far left) Gaza Strip, which constitutes only The “leftist” Zionist Aharon Zisling, for his favored Israeli control over all of the “land 22 percent of historic Palestine; a part, insisted on the “moral right” to “pro- of Israel” (Eretz Yisrael), with the religious freely accessible seaport in the Gaza pose population transfer. There is no moral right viewing “Judea and Samaria” (the Strip; unfettered air access to air- southern and northern West Bank) as the ports in the Gaza Strip and the West flaw to a proposal aimed at concentrating the development of national life; the con- biblical heartland and the secular left and Bank; and a secure land crossing right considering the Jordan Valley, the (analogous to the current secure trary is true—in a new world order it can highways between settlement blocs and should be a noble human vision.” aquifers of the northern West Bank, and in the West Bank) to link the West large areas around Jerusalem and the west- Bank with the Gaza Strip. While those on the left of the Zionist move- ern edge of the West Bank to be strategic ment talked about “voluntary transfer,” military assets. Annexation of the West Palestinians point out that a prece- imagining that Palestinian Arabs would vol- Bank and the Gaza Strip, however, was not dent for full Israeli withdrawal from untarily leave their lands, those on the right an option, as annexation would mean that the West Bank and Gaza Strip in more clearly—some would say more hon- the Palestinians in the territories would exchange for peace is provided by the earlier withdrawal of Israeli estly—recognized that achieving the Zionist become Israeli citizens, endangering the troops and settlements from the aim of a Jewish state would require the use Jewish demographic majority in the state. entire territory of Sinai in exchange of violent force. In his 1923 article “The for a peace treaty with Egypt. Iron Wall,” Jabotinsky outlined the chal- The Israeli dilemma since 1967 can be seen lenges facing the Zionist movement. Any as a struggle to maximize control over Eretz —Alain Epp Weaver and attempt to create a Jewish state in Palestine Yisrael while minimizing the number of Mark Siemens would mean the dispossession of the indige- Palestinians under its direct control. Israeli nous population, and they would resist: military and political leaders have forwarded “Every indigenous people will resist alien various plans to minimize Israeli responsibil- settlers as long as they see any hope of rid- ity for Palestinians in the occupied territories ding themselves of the danger of foreign set- by granting some form of “autonomy” to tlement,” Jabotinsky reasoned. those Palestinians in specific enclaves: the Allon Plan, which would have created north- The Zionist response, he insisted, must be ern and southern enclaves in the West Bank, to establish an “iron wall” of force against separated by Israeli-annexed territory from which the native population would fruit- Jerusalem to Jericho and up and down the Jordan Valley; the “Village Leagues” plan
2 MCC Peace Office Newsletter / July–September 2004 Separation Wall Phase I Jenin Phase II
Settlements Jordan River Proposed Eastern A Wall against the Possibility Separation Zone of a Palestinian State Tulkarm Settlements, closed military zones, and, most recently, the separation wall allow Israel to control the occupied territories economically, Nablus socially, and politically. Qalqilya Phase I of the wall’s construction began in June 2002 and finished in 2003. During the Mediterranean Sea first half of 2004, construction of the wall east of Ramallah and around Jerusalem and Bethle- Tel Aviv hem quickened, while confiscation orders for Phase II of the wall continued to be issued. Israel hopes to finish Phase II by the end of
2005. Jordan
The wall cuts off East Jerusalem from the rest Ramallah of the occupied West Bank, while dividing the Jericho West Bank into northern and southern sections. Tens of thousands of Palestinians are addition- ally trapped between the wall and the 1949 Armistice Line (the Green Line). Jerusalem
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had at first Israel also planned to construct an “eastern fence” Bethlehem down the Jordan Valley. Israeli military orders 0 10 Kilometers and settlements, however, already make the Jordan Valley essentially off-limits to Palestini- ans, and access to the eastern zone can be controlled by key checkpoints without a wall. Hebron Even if the settlements inside the wall would Dead Sea be removed—and the Israeli government has made no indication that it is prepared to remove any but a handful of isolated settle- ments deep in the northern West Bank—the wall alters the geography of the occupied terri- tories so as to make an economically and polit- ically viable Palestinian state impossible.
—Alain Epp Weaver Occupied West Bank
You can destroy a very high building in a couple of days but to build it you need years. The same with peace and violence. You need more work to build peace between the people.
—ABDEL-LATIF KHALID, PALESTINIAN HYDROLOGY GROUP
MCC Peace Office Newsletter /July–September 2004 3 of the late 1970s that would have granted ments will not, Palestinians fear, be the ini- Israel has made it abundantly clear semiautonomous status to Palestinian cities tial step in a gradual end to the Israeli mili- that it is completely opposed to the in the West Bank; and most recently, the tary occupation; the wall means that the creation of a viable Palestinian state Oslo Accords, in which the newly created disengagement plan will, in the end, amount in any part of the occupied territories. “Palestinian Authority” was given semiau- simply to a military redeployment that will Even the planned “withdrawal” from tonomous control over 40% of the West solidify rather than end the occupation. Gaza will leave Israel in exclusive Bank and 60% of the Gaza Strip. None of control of the borders, air space and these plans came close to minimal Palestin- Alpher dismisses Israeli claims that the fence even coastal waters. Gaza would ian demand for a state in all of the West does not mark a border, correctly noting be one big prison—its 1.6 million Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, that Israeli moves mean “de facto annex- inhabitants, mostly refugees from or 22% of Mandate Palestine. ation.” Ali Jerbawi, professor of political other parts of Palestine, completely science at Bir Zeit University, explains that surrounded on all sides. The Wall in Historical Perspective “instead of a practical transfer, [Sharon] The West Bank and Gaza together wants to implement the ‘legal transfer’ of constitute only 22% of pre-1948 The separation wall now being built is best Palestinians. Legal transfer means that while Palestine—and yet Israel and the understood in this historical perspective. The we live inside ‘Eretz Israel,’ we will not be United States are not even willing to wall will allow Israel to maximize its control part of the state of Israel. . . . Basically, he accept the Palestinian compromise over the occupied territories while avoiding has in mind that part of the West Bank will of using just this land as a new state. any responsibility for the Palestinian popula- be incorporated into Israel. The wall is the marker; it is not a security barrier, but the The system of total Israeli control in tion, separated by walls and fences: enjoying the form of fences, curfews, closures the fruits of occupation without any of occu- border. Put the Palestinians into cantons and and checkpoints, has resulted in a pation’s responsibilities. Ehud Olmert, for- let them call that a state, but that state will Palestinian unemployment rate of mer mayor of Jerusalem and a Likud party not be sovereign, will not be independent.” 60%. Seventy percent of Palestinians leader, considers the wall to be part of an live on less than US$2 per day. Thir- Israeli “unilateral solution” whose parame- Aluf Benn, diplomatic correspondent for the teen percent of children in Gaza suf- ters are: “To maximize the number of Jews; Israeli newspaper Haaretz, describes the wall fer from malnutrition. Israel’s aim is to minimize the number of Palestinians; not and “unilateral separation” more bluntly: the to expand its borders and make the to withdraw to the 1967 border and not to plan, he notes, is to “close the territories in living conditions of Palestinians so divide Jerusalem.” This formula means the the West Bank and throw away the key.” critical that they will either be forced to leave their land or accept a life of de facto annexation of large settlement blocs The preferred Israeli term for the wall it total deprivation in small, isolated around Jerusalem and in the northern West is erecting is “security fence” (or “terror- and fenced-in communities. Bank and the Jordan Valley. prevention fence”). Much of the Israeli pub- . . . When Sharon returned to Israel The wall and the “unilateral separation” lic’s nearly universal support for the wall on April 17, after securing US sup- plan are Israel’s attempt to separate itself stems from a belief that it will bring security port for his vision, he told reporters from Palestinians while controlling Pales- from the suicide bombings and other violent that his plan was a “lethal blow” to tinian land. Israeli political scientist Yossi attacks by Palestinians that have claimed the the Palestinians and “will bring their Alpher observes that Sharon’s map of Pales- lives of over 700 Israeli civilians over the dreams to an end.” tinian enclaves may now be “termed a past four years. (Well over 2,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed during this period.) This is not the first time that Israeli ‘state,’ but it has not changed in 25 years: leaders have made such claims. it embodies the 42 percent of the West Bank Israeli feelings of insecurity, however, are Resistance to Zionism’s colonial currently included in areas A and B [of the not limited to concerns about physical project has never been more stead- Oslo Accords], perhaps with a little extra safety, but also relate to demographic fears, fast and the worst excesses of territory and special roads and overpasses to Israeli expansionism [have] only fears about becoming a minority. Yossi give it ‘contiguity,’ but it is essentially frag- Alpher observes that for many Israelis the ever made Palestinians more com- mented, with Israel controlling key axes that mitted to their cause. No Israeli “fence” appears “to offer a means of at least leader can ever decide the fate of link the coast with the Jordan valley. Con- mitigating the demographic threat.” their dreams. ceivably, a few settlements may indeed have to be moved to make it work. The Palestin- Arnon Soffer, a professor at Haifa Univer- . . . A serious effort is required of ian ‘state’ can be fenced in on all sides.” sity, argues that, counting foreign workers the populations of countries that inside Israel and non-Jewish Israeli citizens provide material and political sup- Sharon’s proposal in late winter 2004 to (Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and port to Israel to make their govern- evacuate most of Israel’s settlements in the immigrants from the former Soviet Union ments accountable for the crimes Gaza Strip and a couple of settlements deep being committed in their name. who had a Jewish grandparent but who do in the northern West Bank was consonant not identify themselves as Jews), Jews are Without this, Israel will only ever with this long-term vision. The rejection of escalate its assault against the already a minority in the land from the Jor- Palestinian people. Sharon’s “disengagement plan” by his own dan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Likud party in early May might not mean its —Rihab Charida and Nikolai Had- end: not only Sharon, but also U.S. President More and more Israelis and international dad, Green Left Weekly, April 29, George W. Bush, who endorsed Sharon’s observers view a situation where Israel rules 2004, http://www.greenleft.org plan in mid-April, has significant political over all of this land while denying citizen- .au/back/2004/580/580p17.htm capital invested in the plan’s success. How- ship rights to nearly 3.5 million Palestinians ever, a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and to be one of apartheid (literally “apartness,” from a couple of isolated West Bank settle- a separation, an exclusion of Palestinians
4 MCC Peace Office Newsletter / July–September 2004 from political life). In such a reality, some The long-term sustainability of Israel’s Israeli Jews are voicing fears of a binational approach, however, is highly questionable. The More Things reality emerging. Avraham Burg, a leader in No Palestinian political leadership—present Change . . . Israel’s Labor Party, states, “I am not afraid or imagined—will be able to end the conflict of weapons and terrorism. I am afraid of the in exchange for a “state” with little to no For decades it has been practically taboo within Israeli politics and soci- day that all of them will put their weapons territorial contiguity and no economic via- ety to say the word “Palestinians” down and say, ‘one man, one vote.’” bility. These walls and fences may be long- or to talk about the emergence lived but, as with the physical and legal of a “Palestinian state.” The native Israeli public-opinion researchers Ephraim barriers in Berlin and apartheid-era South inhabitants of the land were called Yaar and Tamar Hermann found that “The Africa, the walls will one day come down. “Arab,” any separate national iden- strong desire for a separation, even a unilat- tity denied. eral one, is connected to a fear among the The signs of hope in the present, then, are overwhelming majority of the Jewish public in the groups of Israeli Jews who join with While the Israeli far right still regarding the emergence of a de facto bina- Palestinian communities under siege in avoids use of the term Palestinian, tional state.” The separation wall, in this demonstrating against this separation wall, the name is now freely used by most politicians of the Israeli Likud context, can be viewed as an attempt to keep living and acting as witnesses to the possibil- and Labor parties. Israeli Prime such a binational state from emerging. ity of binational coexistence. Pope John Paul Minister Ariel Sharon talks about the II has poignantly noted that the Holy Land inevitability of a Palestinian state. Israel believes that the separation wall will desperately needs bridges instead of walls: consolidate its colonization of the occupied even in these grim days of the iron separa- On the one hand, these linguistic territories and its control over natural tion wall, we can be thankful for those developments might be viewed as resources while managing Palestinian unrest Israeli and Palestinian groups building an improvement, a gradual end to by confining it behind walls. With the nearly the Israeli denial that another nation bridges that surmount checkpoints and has rights in and on the land. On the unequivocal support of the United States, roadblocks, fences and walls. Israel will feel free to ignore world public other hand, however, these develop- ments suggest that rhetoric can opinion and possible negative rulings about Alain Epp Weaver is MCC co-representative mask realities of power, because the wall’s legality from The Hague. for Palestine, Jordan, and Iraq. when Ariel Sharon tells his Likud Party colleagues that the occupation must end and a Palestinian state arise, he does not mean a with- drawal to the Green Line, with a Palestinian state in all of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, but rather that the discon- Israel’s Unilateral Separation Plan nected parcels of land surrounded by Israeli fences and walls might by Jad Isaac be called a “state.” —Alain Epp Weaver n June 16, 2002, Israel began implement- Construction of the Wall Oing a unilateral separation plan in the West Bank and issued military orders to The first phase of the separation wall was seize Palestinian lands under the pretext of completed in July 2003, with a length of security. In most areas the separation zone 123.3 km. It extended from the village of consists of a 40–100-meter-wide fence that Salem in the Jenin governorate to the village comprises barbed wire, trenches, military of Masha in the Salfit district, isolating 2 roads and footprint detection tracks, as well 112 km of Palestinian agricultural land as a 4–5-meter-high electrified metal fence and open spaces from neighboring cities, with security cameras. In areas with sizable towns, and villages. The wall has segregated populations or in close proximity to the 496,606 dunams (a dunam is 0.1 hectare or Green Line, as in the case of the Palestinian about 0.25 acre) of Palestinian agricultural city of Qalqilya, the separation wall is a lands, which form 29.9 percent of the total 6–8-meter-high concrete wall equipped with cultivated area in the West Bank, from rigid concrete cylindrical military watch- Palestinian communities. Over 701,000 fruit trees have been trapped between the separa- towers lined up 200 meters apart. In the occupation, tion zone and the Green Line, severely dam- The separation zone is built on Palestinian aging the Palestinian agricultural sector. I have no future. land east of the 1949 armistice borders, the —ILTEZAM MORRAR, 15-YEAR-OLD Fifteen Palestinian villages with more than so-called Green Line, and penetrates deep PALESTINIAN STUDENT FROM into the occupied Palestinian territories, 12,000 inhabitants have been fenced in by BUDRUS VILLAGE looping like a snake in depths from 0.3 km the wall on one side and the Green Line on to 23 km into the heart of the northwestern the other, while another 69 villages located part of the West Bank. east of the wall have been cut off from their lands to the west of the wall. Israeli military orders render the fate of these communities uncertain at best. On October 18, 2003, the
MCC Peace Office Newsletter /July–September 2004 5 Israeli authorities issued orders stating that wall. The western flank of the wall will be Israel’s non-negotiated disengage- no Palestinian can enter the area between 728 km long and will segregate 1073 km2 ment from Gaza will cause many the separation zone and the Green Line (19.3 percent) of the West Bank’s total area. Palestinians to conclude that vio- without a permit from the Israeli military The separation zone will imprison 87,589 lence, and not negotiations, is the government and imposed multiple condi- Palestinians living in 79 Palestinian localities only option for securing their rights. tions on the granting of such permits. between the separation zone and the Green The majority of Palestinians who support a peaceful, negotiated two- Line. The final separation zone will isolate Palestinians living in the segregated towns an additional 183,986 Palestinians within state solution now see that Pales- and villages now face substantial hardships tinians are no longer even welcome secondary separation walls and fences. at the negotiating table. Israel is in reaching Palestinian urban centers, where now negotiating peace with the most social services such as educational Analysis United States—not with the Pales- facilities, health care, and trade centers are tinians. It is impossible to describe located. Travel to nearby urban centers for In its final shape, the separation wall will how deeply this has undermined socioeconomic interaction is jeopardized, as include both eastern and western flanks and Palestinian moderates, such as the Israeli-controlled gates open irregularly will ultimately cover an area of 2,683 km2 myself, who have continued to and for limited hours. Under Israeli military (47.3 percent of the West Bank). The eastern argue for a solution that is based orders, villagers in these isolated towns will flank of the separation zone can, and pro- on reconciliation and negotiation have to get permits simply to go to their bably will, given Israeli budget constraints, and not on revenge and retaliation. homes, to cross through the gates in the be implemented without walls or fences but The primary beneficiaries of these fences to tend their crops, to bring a bride rather via control over roads and check- developments are extremist groups or groom to the village for marriage, or to points. The map on page 3 shows the ulti- throughout the Middle East. The return to the village after attending univer- mate separation plan. leaders of such groups could not sity or receiving health care on the outside. have invented a better method of The sum of the western and eastern flanks recruitment than the Bush-Sharon During the first phase of the separation will affect 146 Palestinian communities with press conference. The reality is that zone’s construction, Israel began building a total population of 288,000 Palestinians. as a result of the positions taken by walls and fences around Jerusalem aimed at The number of settlers in the two flanks the Bush administration, we are far- disconnecting East Jerusalem from the rest who are essentially annexed into Israel totals ther away from a permanent peace of the West Bank and at solidifying Israeli than we have ever been, and many 390,134. Thus, it becomes obvious that the innocent people on both sides will control over its settlement blocs south, east, aim of the separation plan is the de facto, if die in the coming months and years and north of the city. Work in Qalandiya not de jure, annexation of Palestinian land as a result. in northern Jerusalem and Bethlehem to the and the geographic incorporation of the south started in September 2002 to imple- majority of settlements in Israel. My role as chief Palestinian negotia- ment the “Envelope of Jerusalem.” A 17.5- tor may have been taken from me, km segment of the separation barrier was A look at the route of the separation zones but I retain my role as a Palestinian completed by July 2003. clearly shows that the driving force behind father. I am determined to teach the Israeli plan is a systematic land-grab my children that violence is not the To the north of Bethlehem, more than policy, rather than security considerations. answer. President Bush has not 15,000 dunams of Palestinian agricultural made my job any easier. The separation zone deprives Palestinians land, planted mostly with olive trees and of their natural resources and confines them —Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator belonging to Palestinians in the Bethlehem to enclaves under Israeli control with little for the Palestine Liberation area, were cut off from Bethlehem by the room for urban expansion, cut off from vital Organization, Washington Post, separation zone. Palestinian communities land and water resources. Such an arrange- April 25, 2004 that are tied into Jerusalem’s economic and ment guarantees that the Palestinian entity social life through commercial and familial will be neither viable nor sustainable. Pres- ties are being severed from the Holy City by sure on already scarce natural resources will fences, barbed wire, and, in the case of Abu increase, and the Palestinian ecosystem will Dis, 9-meter-high concrete walls. become increasingly vulnerable to collapse. Poverty and despair will prevail, and the An eastern separation zone was announced reservations enclosed by the separation zone in December 2002, one that would penetrate will be inherently unstable. Sharon’s fence is a to a depth of 15 km into the West Bank from the Jordan River, cutting off 1610 km2 A security fence, Palestinian leaders have crime against humanity. (or 28 percent) of the West Bank. repeatedly stated, would have been built —YOSSI SARID, ISRAELI along the Green Line. The walls and fences of In July 2003 (ironically following the Aqaba MEMBER OF KNESSET the separation zone, however, are not about summit, at which the United States’ Road security, but are about strengthening Israel’s Map for peace was unveiled), Israel issued colonization of the occupied territories. military orders to seize Palestinian land for implementing the separation zone’s next Dr. Jad Isaac is the director of the Applied phase. Then, on October 8, 2003, the Israeli Research Institute—Jerusalem, a long-time cabinet approved the route of the separation MCC partner organization.
6 MCC Peace Office Newsletter / July–September 2004 In principle, the consequences of The Israeli View of the Separation Wall Bush’s adoption of Sharon’s plan are indeed momentous. By approving by Jeff Halper Israel’s erasure of the Green Line, annexation of West Bank settlement he question inevitably arises whenever I ground, as an undifferentiated mass of blocs and denial of the Palestinian Ttake people to view the wall, the “sepa- “Arabs,” as foils and enemies. In a kind refugees’ right to return, the sole ration barrier”: How can the Israeli public of autistic nationalism, the Zionist move- superpower has officially abandoned allow this? Don’t they see what’s going on? ment saw a lot of “Arabs” living in the international legality and UN resolu- Don’t they care about the suffering this wall country but not a people with a national tions as the guidelines for an even- tual settlement. And by acceding to is causing? identity, legitimate claims to the land, and this being done by unilateral Israeli a right of self-determination. These are good questions. No one encounter- fiat, it has broken with the idea that • The entrenched notion that the “Arabs” a solution should be arrived at by ing the wall and its tragic consequences to negotiation and mutual consent, tens of thousands of ordinary Palestinians are and always will be Israel’s enemy. Palestinians are not negotiating partners, rather than imposition and “might who have nothing to do with the conflict— makes right”. virtual imprisonment within cities, towns, and if we talk to them it is certainly not as and neighborhoods; the permanent separa- equals, but as a population living in “our” . . . [I]n one sense, Bush has merely tion of parents from their children, husbands country on sufferance and not by right. No abandoned pretences and formal- from wives, friends, teachers, pupils, and matter which direction one comes from— ized existing, if undeclared, US pol- the religious claims of the settlers, the tribal icy. But with a crucial difference. He business associates one from the other; house has made his move in the absence demolitions and massive land expropriation; claims of the secular right wing Likud, or the security concerns of Labor Party gener- of either a peace process or a blue- impoverishment caused by an inability to print worthy of the name. It thus farm one’s ancestral fields; and in general als—it is inconceivable that a sovereign ceases to be about pragmatically living in a suffocating atmosphere of fear, and viable Palestinian state could arise in shelving legal and moral consider- anxiety, hopelessness, and an ever-present the very belly of the Land of Israel. They ations—and dispensing with other gnawing of anger, frustration, and sadness— cannot be “given” a viable state; Israel people’s land and rights—in the can avoid asking and wondering. must control the entire country from the interest of brokering a historic if Mediterranean to the Jordan River forever. lop-sided compromise, or even Tellingly, Israelis whom we cajole to come maintaining the intolerable status • “Occupation” is denied and minimized. see the wall are equally moved and dumb- quo. It becomes, plainly, a licence Since the “Arabs” (Israelis seldom say founded, although Israelis resist being con- for Israeli territorial expansion. “Palestinians”) have no legitimate claims fronted by the barrier that is built, for the to the country and never enjoyed sover- . . . The US has now . . . given Israel a most part, out of their sight. The question eignty over the West Bank or Gaza, there free hand to complete the construc- touches on a much deeper issue: How do tion of the West Bank Wall, pen in the is no Israeli occupation. How can one Israelis, how do Jews, live with a repressive local Palestinians, grab more of their occupy one’s own country? Occupation is occupation affecting millions of people just land, and create more facts on the thereby removed from the discussion as a a few miles from their own homes? ground for the US to later deem “new causal factor in the conflict. Israel reserves realities” that it would be “unreal- Some 80 percent of the Israeli Jewish public for itself the right to rule over the occupied istic” to challenge. . . . territories, notwithstanding international supports the wall project, a consensus going Although it is the Palestinian moder- far beyond political lines of right and left. law prohibiting it from taking any steps that render its occupation permanent. ates who the Bush Administration While its stated justification may be security, has harmed most with its policy it reflects something much deeper, touching • Conclusion: The only “solution” is an shift, it has left none of the inter- on the very claim to the land made by the imposed security one. Lacking any polit- national players interested in Zionist movement. It is the end-product of ical formulation that might resolve the promoting a peaceful settlement a kind of equation accepted by most Jewish conflict, the Israeli public has given up with anything to work with, either. Israelis, as follows: on the notion that peace is possible. All The search for alternatives or new beginnings is likely to be long and • An exclusive claim to the land. The Land it seeks is “peace and quiet.” “Whatever painful. of Israel, with Judea and Samaria (the works.” If the creation of a Palestinian “West Bank”) at its heart, is the exclusive state “works,” then do it. If we must put —Excerpted from editorial, Middle patrimony of the Jewish people. Unlike the Palestinians on trucks and ship them East International, April 29, 2004, out of the country, do it. If the Palestini- http://meionline.com/editorial/ western democracies whose civil societies 223.shtml are based on citizenship and thus can ans cooperate, Israel will be “generous” incorporate people of different ethnic and and give them a ministate (since Israel religious backgrounds, Zionism adopted wants to relieve itself of a Palestinian the tribal nationalism that privileges the population of almost 4 million to which it group that “owns” the country at the can neither grant citizenship nor deny it). expense of “intruders,” the Palestinians. • Irrelevance of Palestinian suffering. Since • A studied disregard for the rights and the “Arabs” refused to accept a ministate even the existence of Palestinians. In the and started an intifada (an uprising), their Jewish conception of Israel, the Pales- suffering and the fate is of little concern tinians appear, if at all, merely as back- to the average Israeli. “We offered them
MCC Peace Office Newsletter /July–September 2004 7 a state and they refused in violence,” the This creates a convenient situation for Israeli formula goes. “They deserve no sympa- governments seeking permanent control of thy. They deserve anything they get. The the entire country. A “deal” has been struck hell with them. They brought their suffer- with the public: We will bring you peace ing on themselves.” and quiet by constructing the barrier, and in return you will give us carte blanche as to the Although it is a dramatic development, the route and the wall’s political consequences. separation barrier/wall, understood in this context, is accepted by the Israeli public as Thus the Israeli public becomes complicit merely a technical solution to the problem of in a project that is likely to lock it into an security. It is viewed as nonproblematic and, intractable conflict for years to come. again, the suffering caused to the Palestini- ans is considered a just reward for their Jeff Halper is the coordinator of the Israeli campaign of terrorism. “They brought it Committee Against House Demolitions, on themselves.” an MCC partner organization. He can be reached at [email protected].
A Gated Community? by Ed Nyce
he roving gate scrambled into position. latest activities in the small area around TDeftly discerning the passageway’s nar- their home. A new road was graded, not yet rowest point, he took shallow root. paved. Heading south, it turns sharply west- ward. “They’re threatening to connect more Stretched to their limits, the gate’s doors roads to these. Doing so would completely nearly spanned the distance between couch enclose us,” said William. Neighboring and wall. Alas, traffic managed to penetrate homes, now in the path the road claims, the gate, answering the invitation to dine. have Israeli military demolition orders. His efforts going for naught, four-year-old William gestured toward two trees in an Sulieman Sahouri rested his arms, ceased his attractive, sometimes green area. “They want On July 9, 2004, the International gate keeping, and joined the table. to put the gate here,” he said. “The gate” Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an ad- would be part of a fence that would isolate It is a fun game, which children anywhere visory opinion in which it ruled that the housing project. It would be staffed by Israel’s separation wall in the Occu- might play. Gate activity also increasingly Israeli soldiers—no one knows how regu- pied Territories is in violation of portrays reality in Sulieman’s Palestinian larly. It would be the only way in and out. international law. The ICJ called town of Beit Sahour. on Israel to halt construction of the Will residents really need permits to go from wall, to dismantle those sections Gates and Fences already constructed, and to make home to school, work, church, emergency room? What about visitors? Imagining the reparation for destruction of land Sulieman lives with his parents, William, possibilities can be cause for despair. Not and property caused by the wall’s 37, and Wafa, 32, and sister Janet, 7. Beit construction. While welcoming this imagining them seems almost impossible. legal victory, Palestinians wait to Sahour, on Bethlehem’s east side, is where the shepherds learned of Jesus’ birth. see if the U.N. General Assembly The Housing Project and Security Council will act on Their home is in a Greek Orthodox Church– the court’s advisory opinion. In 1993, the Greek Orthodox Church floated initiated housing project. Well inside the an idea of a housing project, to be on land The ICJ ruling followed close on the West Bank, it is a target of Israeli govern- that it owns in Beit Sahour, for members heels of an Israeli High Court ruling mental actions as the latter builds its sepa- with limited income, without land, and who on June 30, 2004, that rejected ration wall/fence system. 30 km of the wall’s planned route were mostly young families. The idea was northwest of Jerusalem. The High Since spring 2002, partial installation of well received, and the project began in 1995. Court ordered the Israeli military the system has occurred here. Two to three The vision was for 15 buildings, each con- to develop alternative routes that layers of fencing exist, each with securely would take the humanitarian con- taining 8 units, thereby providing space for closed gates. The inner ring of fencing is ditions of Palestinian villages into 120 families. Each family would contribute electrically charged. Signs in Hebrew, Ara- consideration. Most Palestinians are monthly, finally owning its unit. skeptical of the court’s ruling, fear- bic, and English warn about the lethal con- ing that at best it will mean minor, sequences of touching the fence, which apply The Sahouris eventually entered the pro- cosmetic changes in the wall’s path. even if one is too young to read. gram, initially as an investment. In 1999, they decided to make their unit their home —Alain Epp Weaver The morning of the gate game, December when space needs grew at their extended 30, 2003, William Sahouri pointed out the family house. They completed the unit, and moved in September 2002. 8 MCC Peace Office Newsletter / July–September 2004 In February 2002, the Israeli army came “Even if there is permission [to travel], the with a bulldozer, drove adjacent to a retain- roadblocks are inside of us. [The soldiers New Resources ing wall behind the houses, and hit one. and other Israelis] will look at us as terror- Available from MCC Damage to a corner of the home remains. ists. We’re under a microscope. They’ve put this mind-set in us.” In The Dividing Wall, a new video Spring and summer brought military orders from Mennonite Central Committee, for land confiscation and house demolitions, “But we’re losing our lives,” said Wafa. you can meet families and farmers and Palestinian legal action to challenge “I’m 32, and we can’t do anything normal. whose lives have been devastated by Israel’s separation wall and be them. The Israeli High Court froze the inspired by Israelis and Palestinians orders temporarily. “When I was young, my father took us to the Dead Sea or Jericho every week during who are working for a future of bridges instead of walls. As part of the freeze, Palestinians are prohib- the winter, a 45-minute drive from here. But ited from continuing the project. At the time, I can’t do that for my children. Janet saw the The video explores the humanitar- seven buildings had been completed on the sea on TV. ‘Where is this?’ she asked. ‘Take ian, social, and political impact of outside. The eighth was underway. Israelis us to it.’” the Israeli-built “security fence.” came several times a week to make sure The barrier, which will run about nothing changed, even on finished buildings. “All my children know is home and school,” 700 kilometers (430 miles), is a Believing it is their right, and noting ongoing said William. “We dream of taking a vaca- series of walls and electrified and tion, what normal people dream.” razor-wire fences meandering Israeli seizure of land, the owners’ group at through the West Bank. It separates the housing project nevertheless began con- On December 23, 2003, Israeli officials raided Palestinians from their land, water, struction on Building #8. Building #8, took construction materials, jobs, families, and friends. Increas- and photographed the workers. A week later, ing numbers of Israelis are question- “We’re under a Microscope” work was nevertheless continuing. Fearful ing if this “separation wall” will actually bring lasting security to When asked what goes on inside of them that the buildings might be destroyed if empty, Israel. given these realities, William and Wafa place some families have moved into unfinished their house issue in the overall context of life units in recent months. Such fears are based The Dividing Wall is available in on incidents elsewhere in the West Bank. DVD or videocassette format. It can under occupation. be borrowed at any MCC office or “We are used to this situation,” said Meanwhile, investments of those whose purchased for $30 Cdn./$20 U.S. at MCC offices in Alberta, British William. “If they demolish the house, it’s buildings are not completed are going nowhere. And life for the people who live Columbia, East Coast (Akron, Pa.), finished—take it! We [Palestinians] don’t Manitoba, Ontario, and Saskatche- have anything on our land. During the holi- there already is hardly the realization of a dream. The gates ensure it. wan. The DVD includes the video day, we didn’t go anywhere. We can’t go Walking the Path Jesus Walked. anywhere. I can’t take the kids to the zoo. Ed Nyce lived in Bethlehem from 1999 to Either version comes with a study There’s no place to go rest the mind. 2004, serving as MCC’s peace development guide with advocacy suggestions. worker in the occupied Palestinian territories. Also available soon is a full-color 64-page book written by Sonia K. Weaver, What is Palestine/Israel? Answers to Common Questions. Written in an easily accessible, The Palestinian Fear of Thirst question-and-answer format, this resource introduces readers to the by Jad Isaac complexity of Palestine/Israel and to Palestinians and Israelis working ater is one of the main sources of conflict • The Western Basin is the largest and has for peace and reconciliation. It will Wbetween Israel and its surrounding neigh- an annual safe yield of 362 million cubic be useful for Christian education bors, particularly the Palestinians. The acute meters (mcm). Palestinians consume only classes, for church libraries, and water crisis facing Palestinians is a direct about 7.5 percent of its safe yield. for all Christians who pray and yearn result of Israel’s control over Palestinian for justice and peace to reign in the • The Northeastern Basin has an annual land of Jesus’ birth, death, and res- water resources. The Israelis utilize 85 per- safe yield of 145 mcm. Palestinians con- urrection. cent of these resources while allowing only sume about 18 percent of its safe yield. 15 percent for Palestinian use, denying them To get your copy of What is access to the Jordan River water and control • The Eastern Basin has an annual safe Palestine/Israel? contact any over most Palestinian aquifers. yield of 172 mcm. Palestinians utilize MCC office or ask for Tina Klassen 50 percent of the basin’s water. at 717-859-1151. Water Resources in Palestine The Gaza coastal aquifer has a safe yield Also, the September/October 2004 issue of a Common Place, MCC's The occupied Palestinian territories contain of 55–60 mcm annually, but is being over- bimonthly magazine, covers the three major sources of water: the Jordan extracted at an annual rate of 120 mcm, separation wall. Subscribe online River system, the West Bank aquifer system, causing intrusion of seawater. at www.mcc.org/acp, e-mail and the coastal aquifer system. Since 1967, [email protected], or phone 717-859- The annual Palestinian domestic and indus- Israel has prevented Palestinians from utiliz- 1151. trial water shares are estimated at 93 mcm, ing any of their rightful share of the Jordan less than 30 m3 per year per capita, while the River. The West Bank aquifer system, for its 435,000 Israeli settlers residing in the West part, comprises three basins: MCC Peace Office Newsletter /July–September 2004 9 Bank consume annually 70 mcm of Pales- for domestic, agricultural, and industrial Resources on Israel tinian water, or 281 m3 per year per capita. uses. Thirty-one artesian wells producing 5.5 and the Palestinians This discrepancy between water consump- mcm annually have been separated from the tion was not established through negotia- farmers and villages dependent upon them, BOOKS tions but reflects the asymmetry of power trapped between the separation zone and the Aruri, Naseer, Dishonest Broker: between Israel and the Palestinians. Green Line. The enclosed area also contains America’s Role in Israel and several smaller wells. Palestine (Boston: South End During past Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Press, 2003). Palestinian water rights were a contentious Palestinians will lose nearly 16.5 percent issue. In the Cairo Agreement (Oslo II) of of their share of the Western Basin, as the Carey, Roane, and Jonathan Shainin, The Other Israel: Voices of Refusal 1995, Israel recognized Palestinian water Israeli separation zone means the de facto and Dissent (New York: New Press, rights in principle, but details of actual annexation of these artesian wells to Israel. 2002). access to water were deferred to the perma- The separation zone, in brief, involves Israel nent status negotiations, which have been on depriving Palestinians of their water rights Davis, Uri, Apartheid Israel: Possibil- indefinite hold since early 2001. The Cairo and creating severe problems for the Pales- ities for the Struggle Within (London: Agreement included arrangements for an tinian agricultural sector, which depends Zed Books, 2004). additional 28.6 mcm of water to be deliv- heavily on those wells for irrigation. Hass, Amira, Reporting from ered annually to the Palestinians to meet Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in their immediate water needs during the As the southern portions (down from Bethle- an Occupied Land (Cambridge, MA: interim period. However, the Palestinians hem and the Gush Etzion bloc of settlements MIT Press, 2003). have up to now received less than 15 mcm to the Hebron district) and the eastern flank of the separation zone are constructed, the Pappe, Ilan, The History of Modern of additional water each year, far less than the agreed-upon quota. Palestinian water crisis will be further exac- Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples erbated. A total of 165 wells with an aver- (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univer- sity Press, 2003). Impact of the Separation Zone age annual pumping rate of 33 mcm will on Palestinian Water Resources be cut off from the Palestinian villages that Qumsiyeh, Mazin, Sharing the Land rely upon them; another 53 springs with an of Canaan: Human Rights and the The Israeli separation zone will trap large annual discharge of 33 mcm, meanwhile, Israeli-Palestinian Struggle (London: tracts of Palestinian agricultural land will be isolated from communities that use Pluto Press, 2004). between the walls and fences being erected them by the separation zone. The separation ARTICLES on these lands and the Green Line separating plan will further solidify Palestinian depriva- Israel and the West Bank. The separation tion of their rightful share of the waters of Abu-Odeh, Lama, “The Case the Jordan River. for Binationalism” (Boston zone endangers the agricultural sector as Review 26/6; available at well as other Palestinian economic and nat- ural resources. The Palestinian communities Satellite image analysis shows that 769,286 http://www.bostonreview.net/ dunams of fertile agricultural land will be BR26.6/abu-odeh.html). located inside the separation zone are mainly communities dependent upon agricultural endangered by the Israeli separation plan. Ateek, Naim, “‘Hafrada’ or a produce for the bulk of their income. This means that 46.3 percent of the culti- Genuine Peace” (Cornerstone vated area in the West Bank will be lost or 29 [Summer 2003]; available at The western part of the Israeli separation will become inaccessible for the Palestinians, http://www.sabeel.org/old/news/ zone will endanger fertile agricultural lands due to the Israeli restrictions on the move- cstone29/hafrada.html). located in the semicoastal region of the ments of farmers and produce and the threat Judt, Tony, “Israel: The Alternative” northwest portion of the West Bank in addi- of land confiscation. The Palestinian agricul- (New York Review of Books 50/16 tion to parts of the central highlands run- tural economy will suffer as the total annual [October 23, 2003]; available ning through the middle of the West Bank. income from agricultural production will be at http://www.nybooks.com/ The semicoastal zone receives a relatively reduced by 41.7 percent. This will mean that contents/20031023/). high average annual rainfall of 600 mm and threatened communities will lose their main Pappe, Ilan, “As Long as the Plan is mainly planted with fruit trees, vegetables, source of income, as they become increas- Contains the Magic Word ‘With- and field crops. The western part of the ingly unable to access their land and drawal,’ It Is Seen as a Good Thing” anticipated separation zone of the West required water resources. (London Review of Books 26/9 Bank includes 496,606 dunams of fertile [May 6, 2004]; available at agricultural lands, or 29.9 percent of the In summary, in addition to serving as a land http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n09/ total cultivated area in the West Bank. The grab, Israel’s separation zone is allowing it papp01_.html). annual production of the areas threatened to solidify control over Palestinian water by the separation zone reaches 190,299 resources. Over 200,000 Palestinians in the tons, with value of US$111 million, equal to occupied territories currently lack running 29.9 percent and 22.8 percent of the West water. Residents of West Bank towns such Bank’s agricultural production and agricul- as Hebron and Bethlehem cope with having tural income, respectively. running water for only a handful of days each month. The reservations being created Phase I of the separation plan severely by the separation zones will thus not only affected Palestinian water resources. The lack room for population growth and con- northwest portion of the West Bank con- tiguity for normal economic life, they will tains the richest Palestinian ground water be increasingly dry areas where the fear of aquifers, supplying Palestinians with water thirst becomes very real.
10 MCC Peace Office Newsletter / July–September 2004 Resources on Israel The Wall and the Palestinians by Samia Khoury (continued) WEB SITES “Good fences make good neighbors” is an passed, but its impact was watered down by Al-Haq: http://www.alhaq.org/. English saying. But this so-called “security the abstentions and by the usual U.S. vote The leading Palestinian human fence” is neither good nor is it a fence. It is against any resolution condemning Israel. rights center in the West Bank pro- an evil barrier that will exacerbate the dehu- vides reports and position papers manization of a whole population. Israel I cannot help but recall the words of on Israeli human rights abuses in uses the word “security” because it has very Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary the occupied territories. skillfully put its security as a priority on the for the triumph of evil is for good people to agenda of the world conscience. Israel thus do nothing.” That is exactly what the story Applied Research Institute– Jerusalem: http://www.arij.org/. avoids being challenged. of our dispossession as a people as well as the story of this wall has been about. Good Leading source for case studies Humans erect psychological barriers and responsible people can understand the treating the impact of the ongoing construction of settlements, bypass between themselves based on looks, religion, discriminatory realities but are often afraid roads, and the wall. race, or social class. The separation wall to expose the truth for fear of being labeled might be the first physical barrier that Israel is anti-Semitic. The truth of the wall has noth- The Electronic Intifada: erecting, but in reality the process of putting ing to do with anti-Semitism, and it is the http://www.electronicintifada.net/. up legal and psychological walls started duty of good people not to allow the tri- News updates, analysis, opinion with the establishment of the state of Israel umph of evil. “You shall know the truth, pieces, diaries from Palestine, and in 1948, and continued with the occupation and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32). more, on this Web site for activists. of the Palestinian territories in 1967. International Middle East Media Will the world community continue to be Center: http://www.imemc.org/. Many Walls intimidated? Some refuse: think of the many Media service operated out of Beit activists, Israelis and Palestinians, as well Sahour, with regular news updates The decision for the state to be a Jewish as members of the international solidarity and analysis. state, rather than a state of all of its citizens, movement, who, with their relentless efforts, have been able to expose the truth regarding Palestinian Center for Human Rights: was in itself a decision to establish a wall http://www.pchrgaza.org/. The lead- between the Jews of the new state and the the separation wall. They have been putting ing human rights center in the Gaza non-Jewish population, the indigenous themselves in places of danger to emphasize Strip produces regular reports on Palestinians. Those Palestinians who were the gravity of building such a wall and its Israeli human rights violations. dispossessed of their land and identity by impact on the soul of the people on both the creation of the state of Israel found sides of the wall. Stop the Wall Campaign: themselves to be either stateless refugees or http://www.stopthewall.org/. Israel claims to want this “security fence” Case studies, maps, fact sheets, second-class citizens of the new Jewish state. links, and many more resources Through “legal” legislation many more walls in order to separate the Palestinians from the Israelis, and to prevent the infiltration for activists opposed to the sepa- were erected within the state of Israel—laws ration wall. that restricted Palestinian access to land, that of Palestinians to Israel. This justification limited the possibilities of developing Pales- might have been acceptable if the wall were —Compiled by Alain Epp Weaver tinian cities and towns—turning it gradually erected on the 1967 border, with a full into an apartheid state with different sets of withdrawal from the occupied territories laws for Jews and Arabs. in accordance with U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. But as it is now, Using biblical texts to justify confiscation and with Israel defying all U.N. resolutions, of more land after its military occupation of the wall is actually separating Palestinians the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza from Palestinians. It is also separating Pales- This wall will not bring Strip in 1967, confiscation that paved the tinians from their land, work, hospitals, peace. This wall will not way for building exclusively Jewish settle- schools, churches, and mosques, and from ments, spelled another chapter in the build- their families and the center of their lives. make good neighbors. This ing of walls and barriers. The separation wall The wall, in brief, makes normal life practi- wall will not bring security now being built is but the latest, and most cally impossible for the Palestinians. to the Jewish people. obvious, of Israel’s discriminatory walls. I sincerely hope that Israel will realize that —REV. ALEX AWAD, EAST It is amazing how the world community can to guarantee its security, it has to see the JERUSALEM BAPTIST CHURCH stand helpless against the new reality of the other as a human being. It was the inclusive separation wall. Though European countries theology of Jesus and the face-to-face were critical of Israel for constructing the encounter with the Samaritan woman at separation wall, they abstained when the Jacob’s well (John 4:1–42) that pulled down United Nations voted to take the case to the the walls between Jew and Samaritan when International Court of Justice at The Hague. Jesus asked for a drink of water. How hypocritical! The U.N. resolution
MCC Peace Office Newsletter /July–September 2004 11 Mennonite NONPROFIT ORG Central U.S. POSTAGE Committee PAID AKRON, PA 21 South 12th Street PERMIT #3 PO Box 500 Akron, PA 17501-0500
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Other Options How can the two peoples destined to live The Peace Office Newsletter is pub- side by side in this Holy Land overcome the lished quarterly by the Mennonite Putting up a barrier and excluding the other wall of hostility and live in peace? Certainly Central Committee Overseas Peace might provide temporary security for Israelis not through a reinforced concrete wall eight Office. Editor is Mark Siemens. Con- but it does not solve the long-term problem meters high or through barbed wire and elec- sulting Editors are Bob Herr and Judy and it increases Palestinian insecurity. Heal- trified fences. Nor by military occupation, Zimmerman Herr. Opinions expressed ing and reconciliation will not be possible in this newsletter reflect those of the oppression, and harassment at roadblocks. authors and not necessarily those of from behind walls and barriers, for each will Mennonite Central Committee. only see a monster on the other side, and it If only we could reflect on the Golden Rule: will only exacerbate the animosity, and cre- “Do unto others as you would have them do Additional subscriptions welcome— ate physical ghettos for the Palestinians and unto you” (Matt. 7:12), a common ethical see address below. To keep paper and psychological ghettos for the Israelis as well. energy waste at a minimum we ask code among practically all faiths. If this code were adopted as the principle for all human you to inform us if an address should be It is ironic that Israeli power is leading the changed or if a name should be dropped relationships, then no walls would be neces- from our mailing list. Telephone: Jewish people back to psychological ghettos, sary and security and peace would prevail. (717) 859-1151. Printed in the U.S.A. when there would be other options. The Dare we hope! Or will power and greed con- Israeli soldiers who are refusing to serve in tinue to govern the actions of political lead- To subscribe to the Peace Office News- an occupying force have made their choice, letter, please send your address to MCC, ers, losing all humanity in the process? PO Box 500, Akron, PA 17501-0500 or rather than compromise their humanity. e-mail Bev Martin at