A closer look at “Israel’s” West Bank separation barrier… (3)
Expensive project will `cage in` some 350,000 Palestinians
source: AFP, 10-6-2004.
summary: JERUSALEM (AL-QUDS) - "Israel's" West Bank separation barrier, against which the International Court of Justice ruled Friday, is designed to stretch eventually for more than 700 kilometers.
Some 200 kilometers of the barrier have been built so far, mostly in the Northern West Bank and in and around "Israeli"-annexed Arab East Al-Quds.
At an estimated cost of $3.4 billion, it is "Israel's" most expensive project ever.
Small segments of the barrier`s path to the north and west of Al-Quds will have to be modified after "Israel's" Supreme Court ruled on June 30, 2004 that the harm caused to local Palestinian residents outweighed the barrier`s security advantages.
The landmark ruling came in response to a petition filed by villagers whose land had been bulldozed or confiscated to make way for the construction.
Similar petitions have been filed, notably after works started to take in the major Jewish settlement of Ariel, which juts 20 kilometers into the West Bank.
While the Defense (War) Ministry said it would respect the court`s decision, the "Israeli" government has pledged to finish the barrier`s construction, which began in June 2002, by the end of 2005.
The barrier - a montage of razor wire, electronic fencing, concrete and ditches - is controversial right down to its designation. "Israel" calls it a "terror prevention fence" and Palestinians refer to it as an "apartheid wall."
Palestinians argue that the barrier, which often pokes deep into the West Bank, is an "Israeli" ploy to appropriate more of their land and pre-empt the border of their promised state.
In Palestinian towns close to the Green Line - the 1949 armistice line between "Israel" and the Palestinian territories - the barrier consists of an eight-meter high concrete wall with watchtowers along it. This is the case in parts of the northern West Bank, for instance around the town of Qalqiliya, and in areas adjacent to east Al-Quds such as the small town of Abu Dis.
In West Bank rural areas, the barrier typically becomes a 70- to 80-meter wide strip of razor wire, ditches, electronic fence and paved patrol road.
Several gates were built in the barrier to let Palestinians move from one side to the other. However, permits are required and rarely delivered by "Israel".
"Israel" plans to build additional secondary barriers further east of the barrier, including by Tel Aviv`s Ben Gurion international airport. Once completed, the wall will take in 80 percent of the 220,000 Jewish settlers living on the West Bank, not counting those in the east Al-Quds area.
A dozen small, isolated settlements will remain outside the barrier.
According to the Al-Quds-based UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, only 11 percent of the barrier path will follow the Green Line.
As a result, more than 274,000 Palestinians in 122 villages and towns "will either live in closed areas - between the wall and the Green Line - or in enclaves totally surrounded by the wall", the UN body said in a December 2003 report.
Some 850 square kilometers of the West Bank - east Al-Quds excluded - or 14.5 percent of the total territory will be on the "Israeli" side of the barrier, with no clear information as to the legal status of Palestinians resident there.
Once those living around East Al-Quds are counted in, some 350,000 Palestinians will be "caged in" by the wall.
