The Apartheid Wall- Strangling Palestine

by Layla Kaiksow

The western world took an intense political and social

interest in the building of the Berlin Wall. After far too long the

Western world began to look critically and honestly about the

political and social situation in apartheid South Africa. So why now

does the western world sit by idly while Israel builds another Berlin

Wall, another apartheid, another disaster? Can we not learn from

history and its mistakes?

Maybe people are not aware that in June of 2002 Israel began

constructing a wall, well within the West Bank, devastating fertile

Palestinian land, isolating even more Palestinian water resources,

and destroying Palestinian villages, in some cases isolating them on

three sides. Israel is effectively and illegally (according to

international law set out by the United Nations) snaking its

apartheid Wall up to 3.8 miles inside the West Bank's "Green Line,"

the internationally recognized borders for the West Bank. Often we

hear catch slogans associated with the state of Israel, little

phrases such as "Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East"

or "Israel wants peace." However, what are more important than any

catch phrase propaganda will serve you are the actions and practices

of the state.

Currently I have the honor to be working in Palestine for

various NGO's, one of those being the Palestinian Agricultural Relief

Committee (PARC) in a department that specializes in the development

of rural womyn (for more info on PARC visit www.pal-arc.org).

Through this job I have had a chance to visit the Wall, see the

devastation with my own eyes, take personal accounts of farms lands,

houses, and villages dived. When looking at the towering apartheid

Wall, 26 feet high of think concrete in some areas and a daunting

electrified fence in others, one is struck by how quickly this Wall

will destruct any viable future for a Palestinian state.

Why people cannot see the hypocrisy between the apartheid Wall and

Israel's constant claims of being "the only democracy in the Middle

East" is beyond me. To begin with Palestinians who have been given

Israeli citizenship, ("Israeli Arabs," as they are sometimes called)

have never been granted equal rights under the law with Israel's

Jewish population. A recent study done by the Israel Democracy

Institute, a non-partisan Israeli research institute founded in 1991,

found that Israel in fact ranks very low when compared to some thirty-

five other democracies (22nd). Israel ranked in the lower half of

the list concerning human rights, freedom of religion, and ranked

among the highest in socioeconomic inequality. Part of the study

included a public opinion survey reflecting on how Israelis view

their democracy. As of 2003, 53% of Jews in Israel would openly

state they are against full equality for the Arabs; 77% think there

should always be Jewish dominance in crucial political decisions;

only 31% support having Arab political parties in government; and a

daunting 57% think that Arabs should emigrate (The Democracy Index:

Major Findings 2003, The Israel Democracy Institute). And yet we in

the west still believe it when the media calls Israel a democracy.

All we have to do it is look at the facts on the ground to see the

truth.

We are only in "Phase One" of the Wall and yet the

devastation can be seen in Palestine's three largest agricultural

districts: Qalqiliya, Tulkarm, and Jenin. In 2000 the World Bank

found that these three regions accounted for 45% of the West Bank's

agricultural production. This first phase alone only represents 1/3

of the Wall in its shortest proposed form. Israel refuses to

publicly announce its final plans for the Wall. At the lowest

estimations 65 communities will be affected, this includes over

206,000 people (just for Phase One). In this first phase Palestinian

agricultural land has been confiscated, Palestinian water and

irrigation resources damaged, Palestinian homes demolished, along

with continued isolation of Palestinian communities preventing

farmers from reaching their crops, crops reaching their markets, and

people visiting their families. The future of the wall plans to

isolate Palestinian villages even further than they already are by

Israeli policy of checkpoints, settlements, bypass roads and

Bantustans.

The Wall in effect finalizes Israel's illegal annexation of East

Jerusalem. In 1980, Israel extended its jurisdiction to Occupied

East Jerusalem; this attempted annexation was internationally

condemned and deemed illegal by the United Nations Security Council.

The apartheid Wall cuts off those Palestinians living in the West

Bank from reaching Jerusalem, which is a strong economic resource for

many Palestinians in terms of jobs, markets for crops, not to mention

important holy sites for both Muslims and Christians. The apartheid

wall will wind around to include Rachel's Tomb, an important holy

site for Muslims and Christians and also an important tourist site

for the Bethlehem area, whose economy depends strongly on tourism.

When the Wall is complete the economic benefit and visiting rights of

this holy site will be in the control of Israel.

If this apartheid Wall were truly a means of "security," as Israel

claims, then why is the Wall not being built on the 1967

internationally recognized borders? The 1967 borders have provided a

starting point for many attempted negotiations, so why wouldn't

Israel just use these borders for their unilateral solution of an

apartheid Wall? Clearly this Wall is being used to take even more

Palestinian land that Israel already has, boxing them in tighter and

tighter, hoping-as the study showed Israelis do hope-that the

Palestinians will leave.

Facts on the ground can tell only one story: Israel is not interested

in supporting a viable Palestinian state and is working towards

illegally annexing lands that illegal settlements have been built

on. The Wall zigzags into the West Bank, enclosing some areas on

three sides, so as to complete this vision. Approximately 5.6% of

the West Bank will be illegally annexed to Israel with the successful

completion of the first phase of the Wall. Neither the settlements,

nor the wall, nor the annexation of these lands is sanctioned by

international law. The wall successfully isolates Palestinian areas

within the West Bank from each other, stunting the growth and

survival of the Palestinian economy, ensuring its dependence on the

Israeli economy. This is yet another tactic of the Israeli

government to create facts on the ground that will complicate any

future for an independent Palestinian state.

The wall has already cut roads, separating people from their farm

lands, water resources, public resources, social ties, education, and

income. So far 19 miles of water resources have been destroyed

(directly affecting 50 wells), approximately 102,320 trees have been

uprooted, some 40 homes will be demolished (to date 28 homes have

been demolished, the rest holding demolition orders), 85 commercial

buildings have been destroyed, some 3,670 acres of land have been

confiscated and destroyed to make space for the apartheid wall (and

this does not include the land that is being illegally annexed to

Israel west of the Wall), and this is just the first phase.

The fate of villages west of the Wall and between the Green-Line has

now been decided by military order no. 378 which unequivocally states

that those living in this so-called "seam-area" will have to leave or

gain permits from the Israeli government to remain on or have access

to their lands. This "seam-area" contains 16 villages with an

estimated 11,550 residents. According to the Israeli government

these communities present a problem for the "natural" growth of the

illegal settlements. Currently in these areas 20 factories, 16

homes, 174 shops, and one school have all been issued demolition

orders. Israel hopes to expand the Trans-Israeli highway in this

area so as to connect the illegal settlements more easily with the

rest of Israel proper.

In the face of all of this we can not believe that Israel

really desires peace with an equal state of Palestine. Its policies

of closures, limiting mobility, continued building and expansion of

settlements, and now this apartheid Wall to seal the fate of

Palestine speak louder than any Zionist propaganda of "peace and

democracy." Actions speak louder than words and Israel's actions

scream injustice and racism. Israel continually violates UN

resolutions, refuses to abide by international standards of human

rights, refuses to create a country with religious freedom and

individual equality, and continues to repress a whole population with

armored tanks, apache helicopters and CAT bulldozers-all of which are

bought with US loans that channel American tax-payers money into the

pockets of the military industry giants while our outright support

for Israeli apartheid makes Americans ever more hated and at risk

around the world.

Why does the world sit by as the Israel creates another South

Africa, another apartheid system based on racial policy? The UN sits

quietly passing resolutions against the apartheid wall with little to

no action behind their words. The US continues to fund the state of

Israel, taking no real action to prevent the building of this wall.

US companies, such as Caterpillar, continue to provide Israel with

bulldozers to raze Palestinian houses and land. US citizens sit by

watching as their tax dollars are sent to a government that seeks to

intern Palestinians in their own land, and strangle their economy.

Israel's actions speak louder than any baseless claims of democracy

and peace, if one examines the facts and practices of the state of

Israel it becomes obvious that peace is not the goal.

I have been honored to live amongst the Palestinians here and there

is one thing that I am sure of, Israel can continue its racist

policies and imprisonment of Palestinians but they will not give up.

They stay and fight because they know they have the right to this

land, and that is stronger than any apartheid Wall Israel seeks to

build, and they can never cage that.