A Wall which kills life and land

“They are destroying everything, what will happen to us, to me, what will happen to other merchants and families”, Kamil al-Kalooty, a storeowner in Anata village said.

Despair, pain and disappointment, among other feelings became the daily nightmare of Anata, Sho’fat refugee camp, and Kafer Aqeb residents, north of Jerusalem, having to watch the Israeli bulldozers guarded by the police and army, destroying their dreams and social ties by constructing the “wall of hatred and isolation” around them.

“This wall will destroy my social life, all of my friends and relatives are on the other side now”, Um Fahmi [the mother of Fahmi] said, “What will happen to us when they finish constructing this Wall”. 

Un Fahmi is a bearer of a Jerusalem identity card, while her relatives are considered residents of the West Bank.

Um Ramzi al-Ja’ba used to live with her husband and children in Jerusalem, but as a result of a discriminatory policy practiced by Jerusalem municipality, the family was not allowed to expand their home or construct a new one, so they had to move out of the city and live in Kafer Aqeb.

“Now with this Wall, my children will not be able to reach their schools in Jerusalem”, Um Ramzi said, “Where can we go, what can we do, they are…just isolating us from our city, our life”.

As the Israeli authorities resumed the construction of their discriminatory wall, in Abu Dis, Tulkarem, Qalqilia, Ramallah…,  the residents started to hold protests against the Wall, against the separation and isolation, against a wall which is not only consuming their lands, their main source of livelihood, but also isolating them and cutting their social ties.

“What can we do?” Eyad al-Safady, a resident of Shu’fat refugee camp said, “the residents are protesting nearly on daily basis, international and Israeli activists join the protests too, but now the army is installing its walls of hatred, eight meters high”, he added.

“They just don’t care, they construct their wall, bulldoze and annex our lands”.

Ahmad al-Tameemy, a resident of Shu’fat, said that the silence of the world is considered a sort of encouragement to Israel.

“They can do whatever they want”, al-Tameemy said, “Whenever there is a protest we participate in it, but…what can we do more, we need international support and pressure, the world should stand firm and tell Israel enough, do not build this discriminatory wall”. 

  

The legality of illegality

The Separation Wall constructed by Israel in the occupied territories is a direct and clear violation of the International Law, it is a wall which separates the people from each other, a wall which separates the farmer from his land…or what is left of it, this wall is the biggest time-bomb which will explode one day and destroy any chances of real and ever lasting peace.

Ibrahim Oleyyan, head of Anata village council, said that the wall is “a rape project”, rape of the land, rape of the dreams, and society.

Its rips off any possibility of a Palestinian State, with geographical contiguity, it separates the people, the land, and the dreams, it divides the divided, conquers and conquered, it is a predator which eats and swallows whatever stand in its route.

The Characteristics of the Wall

The Separation Wall sways from the “Green Line” into the Palestinian lands in the West Bank. The width of the area between the Separation Wall and the Green Line ranges from 0.3 – 23 square kilometers in the West Bank that isolates 110.2 sq. km. of Palestinian lands, 22 sq. km. of which are rich arable lands planted with more than 700,000 fruitful trees, as well as more than 30 water wells.

 

The Wall consists of:

1.   Barbed wires, to obstruct access.

2.   A trench 4-m width and 5-m depth, it is dug behind the barbed wires.

3.   A 12-meter wide road, used by the military for surveillance.

4.   A dirt road 4 meter wide that is located right behind the military road, to trace ‘infiltrators’. This road is daily combed in the morning and evening.

5.   The Eight-meter Concrete wall in many areas is also ‘guarded by “electronic fence”, where alarms, surveillance cameras, lamps, and other security equipments are placed.

6.   After the fences, there is a dirt road, a paved road, a trench, and barbed wires, like the ones located before the wall.

7.   It is built on Palestinian own lands, measuring 73 thousand Dunams.

The Israeli Army has fixed machine guns with surveillance cameras on certain parts of the Separation Wall by which they can control the area.

The Israeli plans point out that the Separation Wall will divide occupied West Bank into three parts:

A-    Eastern security area along “Al-Ghor” (low land) (1,237 sq. km.) or 12.9 % of the total area of the Palestinian territories. This area includes 40 illegitimate Israeli settlements.

B-    Western security area 1,328 sq. km or 23.4 % of the total area of the Palestinian territories. This means that the two areas altogether will include 45 % of the total area of the Palestinian territories.

C-   The third area which encompasses the largest Palestinian cities is estimated at 54.7% of the total area of the Palestinian territories and it will be divided into 8 regions and 64 ghettos.

The Palestinian National Information Center (PNIC) has released a report on the Separation Wall titled “The Reality of the Separation Wall”. The report points out that the Separation Wall will include a barbed wire fence that will cut off a number of Palestinian cities and villages in the northern part of the West Bank.

Notably, the largest areas of the seized or bulldozed Palestinian lands by the Israeli army are in the Palestinian city of Tulkarem.

The number of the illegitimate Israeli settlements located eastern the Separation Wall is estimated at 102 settlements. The surface area of the settlements measures 99.5 sq. km., whereas the total number of the Israeli settlements according to statistics and maps made by the Center of Land’s Studies is estimated, up to the end of 2003, at 256 settlements.

The Separation Wall will separate 70 Palestinian-owned Dunams between the Separation Wall and the “Green Line”. 

 

This Israeli plan will create three separated ghettos”

1- Northern Ghetto:

The northern ghetto includes the northwestern part of the Separation Wall that runs from Jenin to Qalqilia, two Palestinian cities. This part has been accomplished and it will be completed to reach the Palestinian city of Ramallah to the south.

The Separation Wall extends from Jenin to Ramallah connecting with the other side of the Wall forming a ghetto in the north. Thus 50 Palestinian villages will be cut off from the rest of the West Bank.

To the south of Qalqilia Palestinian city, the Separation  Wall runs 22 km long to the east in the middle of the West Bank to encompass the largest illegitimate Israeli settlements in the West Bank; “Ariel” and “Kadumim “.

It has been announced that the Palestinian land between the Separation Wall and the “Green Line” is a “buffer zone”. Accordingly, the Palestinian citizens living in this area must obtain permits from the Israeli Authorities to be allowed to stay in their homes and on their land.

On 23 April, 2003, the daily Israeli newspaper  “Yedioth Ahronoth” pointed out that “the three-ghettos plan “ was already mentioned in an old plan that had been announced in 1978, as professor Artoon Sofeir, a researcher in Geography, at Haifa University — originator of the idea of the Arab demographic threat — stressed the necessity of dividing the West Bank into three parts, the first part is 1,930 sq. km. that extends from Jenin to Ramallah, the second one is 710 sq. km. that extends from Bethlehem to Hebron and the third of which is 60 sq. km. and it encircles Jericho.

 

When completed the Separation Wall will cut off 200 thousands Palestinian citizens inside Jerusalem, isolate 250 other thousands in small enclaves and will put 450 thousands Palestinians under the Israeli sovereignty.

2- Jerusalem ghetto

The Separation Wall encircles the city of Jerusalem by a large number of Israeli illegitimate settlements around it, thus Jerusalem becomes completely cut off from the West bank. It also rips through the villages and neighborhoods close to Jerusalem separating families and disconnecting social and economic bonds.

This part of the Separation Wall is about to be completed to the north of Ramallah, and it is still under construction in different regions east and south Bethlehem. Thus Jerusalem will lose 90% of its total area when the construction of the Separation Wall is fully completed.

3- The Southern ghetto

In the south of the West Bank the Separation Wall will encircle Bethlehem and Hebron as it extends from the south of Occupied Jerusalem in the eastern and western directions. The Israeli Authorities will also build additional cement walls close to the two religious places; Prophet Joseph Shrine and Al-Ibrahimi Mosque.

Alongside the three large ghettos, other ghettos will be formed to cut off Habla and Ras Ateyya, two Palestinian towns, in one ghetto in the city of Qalqilia and in Salfit, Rafat, Dir Ballout and Masha will be cut off as well in another ghetto.

Moreover, the Palestinian towns of Shaqba, Qebia, Dir Qadees, Na’lein, Bodrus and Madia to the northwest of Ramallah will be isolated in one separate ghetto. Likewise, Beit Anan, Beit Doqqu, Beit Soreek, Qotna, Rantees and Dir Ibzeigh Palestinian villages will share the same ghetto.

The Israeli settlement of Ariel is located 20 km far from the midst of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and it is fenced off with 40 km long fence. The settlement lodges 20,000 Israeli settlers. In September 2003, the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stated that the Separation Wall will encompass the settlement of Ariel in spite of the disapproval of the US Administration

 

Maisa abu Ghazala, Palestine News Network,

 & The Palestinian National Information Center