Israel Begins Fencing off West Bank

["Macdonald Stainsby" <mstainsby@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

AP. 14 June 2002. Israel Begins Fencing off West Bank; Permanent Border
or Ad Hoc Security Barrier?

UMM EL-FAHM -- An elderly Palestinian struggled up a steep path, bowing
under a load of burlap bags filled with oranges as he crossed the
unmarked line between the West Bank and Israel.

Soon the line will no longer be invisible - and 70-year-old Mustafa
Akel, who lives in the West Bank, will no longer be able to sell his
produce in Israel.

Israel is fencing in part of the West Bank to [ostensibly] keep out
Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen who have killed more than 520
Israeli during 20 months of fighting.

Yet the 75-mile barrier, which is to run largely along the so-called
Green Line - Israel's frontier before the capture of the West Bank in
the 1967 Mideast war - has many opponents.

Right-wing Israeli politicians fear that what is being billed as a
temporary "security fence" will evolve into Israel's permanent border
with a future Palestinian state, leaving 200,000 Jewish settlers on the
wrong side.

The Palestinians believe the barrier is part of a secret Israeli plan to
carve up the West Bank.

About 30 square miles in the West Bank have already been seized by the
Israeli military for the $80 million fence project that is to get under
way Sunday.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the architect of Israeli settlement
expansion, long opposed the barrier for ideological reasons, but
reluctantly gave his approval this month.

The fence is to run from northeast of Tel Aviv to south of Afula, a town
in northern Israel.

It will separate the West Bank towns of Jenin, Tulkarem and Qalqiliya
from nearby Israeli cities that have frequently been targeted by
Palestinian attackers.

For thousands of Palestinian laborers who sneak across the Green Line
the fence means losing access to better-paying jobs in Israel.

Unemployment in the West Bank is about 50 percent as a result of
stringent Israeli travel bans that confine Palestinians to their towns;
the restrictions were imposed in response to attacks.

Mustafa Akel will no longer be able to sell his oranges and other
produce in more affluent Israeli markets. These days, Akel manages to
evade Israeli military patrols and climbs a narrow path early in the
morning through the putrid garbage dump of Umm el-Fahm, an Israeli Arab
town along the Green Line.

During a recent trip, Akel took a quick break and a swig of water, then
hurried on despite intense heat, hefting his heavy load across his
shoulders.

"If the soldiers see me they will send me back," he said, gasping for
air after his climb. Since September 2000, Israel has barred virtually
all Palestinians from entering, and the closure is enforced with
military patrols.

Nearby, Palestinian children scampered up the slope, carrying plastic
bags filled with household goods for sale. Next to the mountain of
trash, a Palestinian taxi waited to take customers back to the West Bank
along a dirt road, one of a few paths that have not been closed off by
the army.

There are illegal "crossing points" such as the Umm el-Fahm dump all
along the Green Line.

In Israel's Gilboa region near the West Bank, the Defense Ministry has
taken emergency measures. A trench runs the length of Gilboa's 15-mile
border with the West Bank and a low barrier, intended to keep out cars,
is being completed. A zeppelin trains surveillance cameras on the area.

Yet attackers continue to slip through. On June 5, a Palestinian
teenager from Jenin sneaked across the Green Line near the Gilboa area
and exploded a bomb-laden car next to an Israeli bus, killing himself
and 17 Israelis.

"Until there is a proper fence, this is a waste of time," said Yaron
Ohayan, general manager of the Gilboa regional council, referring to the
temporary measures.

The Gilboa region is not included in the first stage of the government's
fence construction, and the council is trying to raise money to build
its own barrier.

While Israeli communities near the West Bank are pressing for quick
action, Jewish settlers fear the fence is a step toward giving up claims
to the West Bank.

Settlers demand Israeli troops reoccupy all the West Bank or,
alternately, fence in Palestinian towns. "A political fence will not do
anything for security," said Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, a settler spokesman.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat complained Israel was acting
unilaterally.

"This fence means ... imposing facts on the ground," he said.

"This is unprecedented apartheid."

For now, the fence is going ahead and may redivide the Arab village of
Barta which straddles the Green Line. Before 1967, the village of 3,000
had a wall running through it, with Israel controlling the west and
Jordan the east.

"I live here in the West Bank," said Sadi Kabahar, 25, standing outside
a grocery shop about a hundred yards from the Green Line.

"But my brother is Israeli. He lives other there," Kabahar said,
pointing at houses on the other side of the road.




--
Macdonald Stainsby,
External Relations Co-ordinator,
Douglas College Students Union.
**
In the contradiction lies the hope. --Bertholt Brecht.
***
"`Order rules in Berlin.' You stupid lackeys! Your
`order' is built on sand. Tomorrow the revolution will rear
ahead once more and announce to your horror amid the brass
of trumpets: `I was, I am, I always will be!'"

-Rosa Luxemburg, 1918.



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