"Israel’s" Wall of Death

Source: SACOBSERVER.COM WIRE SERVICES, 7-6-2006
By Bill Fletcher, Jr.
(NNPA) - Some call it the "Apartheid Wall," reminding us of the criminal regime that dominated South Africa until 1994 and oppressed its Black majority. I simply call it the Wall of Death because, for all the rhetoric, "Israel's" wall separating itself from the Occupied Territories more than anything else is about ensuring the death of the Palestinian people.
When the idea was first broached of "Israel" creating a wall separating itself from the Occupied Territories, most people viewed it as a crackpot notion that would never come to fruition. Yet, in an atmosphere in which "Israel" has continued to violate United Nations' resolutions calling for its withdrawal from the Occupied Territories and when it lives in fear of attacks by individuals and organizations from within the Palestinian resistance, the idea of a wall gained steam.
It needs to be clear that this wall is opposed by virtually every country on planet earth. It is a unilateral declaration of the borders that "Israel" wishes to establish...for now. Thus, the illegal settlements created by "Israel" in the Occupied Territories, will, for the most part, become a permanent feature and the Palestinian territories will look more and more like a collection of chicken pox on someone's back rather than anything approaching a nation-state.
In this context, it was astounding for President Bush to once again step forward and put his foot in his mouth, virtually endorsing the unilateralism of the "Israeli" government. "Israeli" Prime Minister Olmert has insisted that if there is no agreement with the Palestinians on borders, then "Israel" will declare the borders on their own. Yet, such a declaration will be a flagrant violation of United Nations' resolutions. When it has come to violating United Nations' resolutions, other countries have been threatened with sanctions and/or military operations. Why is "Israel" exempt from this and not even subject to criticism by the Bush administration?
The "Israeli" Wall of Death is not aimed at simply segregating the Palestinians on a non-viable piece of territory after the "Israelis" have gobbled up the most useful land and seized East Jerusalem. This is where the analogy with South African apartheid ends. It is not a stretch to conclude that the aim of the "Israeli" government is to drive the Palestinians off of the Occupied Territories entirely and make way for their vision of a Greater "Israel". The "Israeli" government knows full well that the borders that it is preparing to declare will make an independent Palestinian state virtually impossible. It will be the equivalent of Native American reservations in the United States that are barely able to sustain themselves. The reservations for the Palestinians will be a temporary space until they are forced onto their own 21st century version of the trail of tears.
The time has come to stop making special exceptions for Israel. The fact that Jews were nearly exterminated by the Nazis in the Holocaust can simply not be used as a reason to turn a blind eye toward the efforts by the Israeli government to ethnically cleanse Palestine of the Palestinian people. Israel's Wall of Death; its repeated failure to heed United Nations' resolutions; and its accumulation of nuclear weaponry (along with a failure to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) demonstrate nothing approaching any sort of democratic morality. Rather it represents what will ultimately be a self-destructive, and potentially catastrophic, road by those who have decided that might makes right, and that it's their way or no way at all, legalities and morality notwithstanding.
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a long-time labor and international activist and writer. The immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum, he can be reached at [email protected].