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| Middle East |
| Israel security barrier cuts off Palestinians from Jerusalem |
| 2003-07-27 |
| More on the fence JASON KEYSER, Associated Press Writer Sunday, July 27, 2003 (07-27) 11:29 PDT JERUSALEM (AP) -- Workers will soon complete a key part of Israel’s separation project from the Palestinians: two snaking barriers of electronic fences, trenches and razor coil that will cut off Jerusalem from Palestinian areas to the north and south. Any idea why they might want to do that? something about splodeydopes going off in civilian areas? The barrier -- which Israelis call "the fence" and Palestinians have taken to calling "the wall" -- aims to separate most of the West Bank from Israel, blocking suicide bombers who have killed Israelis by the hundreds in recent years. Yep But the section around Jerusalem, which straddles the Israel-West Bank dividing line, is politically explosive as a physical demonstration of Israel’s annexation of what Palestinians see as their capital. And it has become a sticking point in negotiations over a U.S.-backed peace plan. Paleos see all of Israel as their land? Any idea why everyone else should feel bad when their fantasies are broken? President Bush suggested the barrier should come down, saying after last Friday’s talks with Palestinian Premier Mahmoud Abbas that it was difficult to build confidence "with a wall snaking through the West Bank." The barrier also is expected to come up in Tuesday’s talks between Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington. Not a chance, GWB A solution will not be easy. Israeli attitudes are hard on the issue, especially in Jerusalem, which has suffered much in the last three years of violence: 20 suicide bombings by Palestinian militants in the city have killed 103 people and injured hundreds. "Peace is an illusion," said Israeli Avishai Gabbay, 24, standing on Ben Yehuda street, which was repeatedly battered by attackers. "You’ll be on your side, we’ll be on ours, and let’s keep it that way." And your side will be a hellhole of whining nonproductive asshats Palestinians, however, bristle at what they see as another Israeli attempt to control their movements and divide them from each other and their agricultural lands, places of worship and jobs. "It feels like a prison," said 32-year-old high school teacher Nidal Dirawi on Jerusalem’s rural southern outskirts, watching dump trucks unload gravel to support the fence built in part by Palestinians who said they were desperate for work. boo friggin hoo Israel seized east Jerusalem -- which includes the walled Old City with its sites holy to Christians, Muslims and Jews -- from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it. But east Jerusalem has remained the center of commercial and religious life for the roughly 2 million Palestinians of the West Bank, which surrounds the city from the north, east and south. I thought Ramallah was their center? The new northern section of the barrier cuts off all of Jerusalem from the West Bank administrative center, Ramallah, and the gateway to Nablus and other towns. The southern barrier separates the city from the biblical town of Bethlehem, Hebron and other areas. So Ramallah is their center, Jerusalem is just the focus of their latest "outrage" Together, the northern and southern barriers -- built mostly during the past six months -- are some 12 miles long; plans are not clear on how to close the gap between the two, facing the lightly populated area to the east of the city. Israelis say separation is essential to stopping terrorism and enabling negotiations for a peace treaty after which the West Bank barrier, or parts of it, might be moved or removed. Palestinians, however, have condemned the project as a grab of land they consider theirs. Along the stretch of barrier completed in the north of the West Bank, significant tracts of Palestinian agricultural land were seized. The Jerusalem fences, opponents say, also mean West Bank Palestinians will be cut off from the city’s schools, hospitals and jobs -- as well as from Friday prayers at the Al Aqsa mosque, a key Islamic holy site. The barrier also will divide the roughly 200,000 Arabs of east Jerusalem from relatives and friends in the West Bank. Israeli roadblocks set up since fighting broke out in September 2000 already has made such access very difficult. But it was not impossible, and there was hope that one day the roadblocks might go away. Simple answer - quit killing Jews. Cause/Effect lessons still not taking, are they? The project also undermines the Palestinians’ efforts to develop a commercial hub in a future east Jerusalem capital, said Stephanie Koury, a legal adviser to the PLO. A commercial hub? In a future civil-war society with as corrupt a government as there is on earth?Bwahahaha The situation is complicated by the fact that Israel has ringed east Jerusalem with Jewish neighborhoods -- making a simple division impossible and even creating a slight Jewish majority in the occupied sector. The project also sometimes leaves Palestinian areas caught between the fence and other travel restrictions. The southern Jerusalem barrier, for example, veers into the West Bank to incorporate on the "Israeli" side Rachel’s Tomb, revered by religious Jews as the burial site of the biblical matriarch. The site is just south of Jerusalem, inside Bethlehem; about 400 Palestinians living near the tomb will be cut off from Bethlehem -- but aren’t expected to get Jerusalem access permits either. The new barrier is impossible to hop over. In some places it stretches as wide as a football field, with a 10 foot high fence with electric sensors in the middle. On either side are 13 feet deep trenches and pyramid-shaped stacks of six coils of razor wire. On the Israeli side is a smoothed strip of sand to detect footprints and a paved patrol road. Other than the Jerusalem sections, work is nearly done on a 90 mile stretch in the northern West Bank. That barrier also drives into the West Bank in some areas, separating Palestinian farmers from orchards and olive groves. In its first phase, the fence complex alone takes up 2,850 acres of Palestinian land. Israel set aside $22.3 million to compensate Palestinians whose property has been seized, but few have taken the money, fearing it would ruin chances of ever getting the land back. Ultimately, according to current planning, the entire West Bank barrier -- including the Jerusalem section -- will be up to 370 miles long. Israeli officials note that there have been practically no attacks recently to originate in the Gaza Strip, which has been fenced off for years. Backers of the project hope the new barrier will do the same for the West Bank. "We have to defend the lives of our citizens," said Avi Pazner, a spokesman for the Israeli government. Not everyone sees the fence as a peacemaker. On the city’s northern outskirts, the barrier reaches just a few steps from Palestinian homes, and some residents fear gunmen will take up positions in their yards to fire on Israeli army patrols, drawing return fire. "The fence will be one of the reasons for the next war," said Sameeh Abu Ramila, who lives on the West Bank side of the barrier. I see, and is this war on the Road Map? |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #1 "I see, and is this war on the Road Map?" Sure, Frank. Just check your program... See? Right there. Comes right after the First Intermission, which is where we are now. |
| Posted by: PD 2003-7-27 10:33:16 PM |