The Wall In the West Bank

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The Wall In the West Bank

• The Separation Barrier, the Apartheid Wall, the
  Fence

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The foot of the wall
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Taking up valuable agricultural land
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One of the sniper towers

• Concrete wall
• 25 feet high
• 6 feet wide at the base
• 2 feet wide at the top.
• Armed concrete watchtowers and firing posts every
  100 meters

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Electric fence

• Security zone 30 to 100 meters wide
• No trees or structures in order to make way for
• Electric fences
• Trenches
• Cameras
• Sensors
• Security patrols
• The barrier is in fact a number of different
  obstacles and hurdles.

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The electric fence version

• Three layers of coiled razor wire
• trench 4 feet deep
• electrified fence with cameras along its route
• strip of fine sand to reveal footprints
• paved military road for army patrols

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The electric fence version

• another trench the other side and more coiled
  razor wire
• watchtowers and entry gates at various intervals
• exclusion zone on the Palestinian side of
  undetermined length

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West Bank!
Time.com
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Coiled razor wire
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Qalqilya

• The city of Qalqilya is almost completely
  surrounded by wall
• The only access for entering and leaving the town
  is a narrow strip guarded by a military
  checkpoint.

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• Homes, farms, fields, greenhouses within 35
  meters of wall destroyed
• Wall confiscated and isolated 3,750 dunums of
  land
• Another 2,200 dunums destroyed for its footprint

Destroyed olive trees near Qalqilya
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The noose around Qalqilya

• Population 42,000 already 8,000 residents have
  left
• Sits atop the Western Aquifer Basin produces
  half of West Banks water resources
• Israel gains near total control to highest
  productive zones of this aquifer basin

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From the village of Habla, with Alfe Menashe
settlement in background
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Restriction on movement

• Before the wall
• 250 permanent Israeli military checkpoints
  roving checkpoints
• barricades, roadblocks
• by-pass roads for settlers only
• permits required to go from one town to another

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Restriction on movement

• With the wall
• restriction on movement will be even more
  severely hampered
• there will be more checkpoints
• 500,000 Palestinians will be totally isolated in
  enclaves living in closed military zones with
  their status unclear. Would require permits to go
  through any gates into the West Bank.
• All of the Palestans will be surrounded by
  Israel, to the West, North, South and East.
  Palestinians will need the permission of the
  Israeli military to move from one Palestan to
  another.
• The settlers living on illegally confiscated
  Palestinian land will have total freedom of
  movement.

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Freedom of movement
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Truncated Palestans and enclaves
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Impact on Palestinian land

• Phase I loss of land 2.9 in Northern area
• Phase II loss of land 25 of West Bank
  containing 80 of fertile land and 65 of
  Palestinian water resources
• Phase III loss of land 55 of West Bank, up to
  600 km of wall.
• Israel will have control over 90 of historical
  Palestine.

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Three phases of land confiscation
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Palestinian Land before the Wall
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Bulldozing the land
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Uprooting the olive trees
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After the bulldozers
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Gates and access to their farmland

• The Israelis made a fence around the
  settlement, then they put in a small gate so we
  could get to our olive trees. They gave us the
  key and let us come and go for the first year.
  Then they changed the lock and put a guard on.
  But he doesnt come on the Sabbath and on
  holidays and when he is sick. Then one day he
  doesnt come at all and you cant get to your
  land. Then they declare you are not working on
  your land and seize it.
• Ahmad Abdul-Karim, Palestinian Farmer.
• Quote Uzi Dayan, the first director of the
  barrier project, admitted that the Palestinians
  fears are not unfounded.

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Water

• Phase I approx. 36 groundwater wells
  confiscated, 14 threatened with demolition in
  Walls buffer zone
• Wall separates water sources and networks from
  agricultural lands.
• A number of villages are to lose their only
  source of water. These days Jayous receives
  running water for only 2 hours every three days
• Western Aquifer Basin, second largest freshwater
  source in the region after the Jordan River,
  provides almost half of the West Banks water
  supply.
• All the water from the Jordan River goes to
  Israel
• Palestinians face water shortages on a regular
  basis

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Impact on people

• Phase I According to World Bank the livelihood
  of 200,000 individuals will be affected, nearly
  70 towns, villages, hamlets will be separated
  from their means of livelihood
• 20,000 individuals in the North will be
  located east of the wall, their lands to the west
• Phase II 400,000 Palestinians west of wall
• Phase III 500,000 individuals will be located the
  Israeli side of the wall in closed military
  zones
• About 20 of West Bank residents will be cut off
  from towns and other areas of the West Bank and
  Jerusalem.

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Ras Atiya wall right next to school
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Settlement of Ets Efraim from Masha camp
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Impact on economy

• A report written by experts from the World Bank
  warns that building the wall is liable to bring
  economic and social catastrophe.
• Freedom of movement, the key to a healthy
  economy
• denied to Palestinians

• Widespread unemployment, poverty and hunger
• Destruction of property
• Livelihoods destroyed

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Agricultural production

• The areas confiscated are the most fertile in the
  West Bank. One square kilometer yields income of
  around US900,000 per annum.
• Lost production 2,200 tons of olive oil per
  season, 50,000 tons of fruits and over 100,000
  tons of vegetables. 20,000 grazing animals will
  not have access to their grazing lands.

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Economic hardship

• Unemployment
• Gaza
• 80 to 90
• West Bank
• 50- will increase with the impact of the wall
• Azzun Atme, before September 2000 unemployment
  10, now 70
• Many Palestinians live on less than 2 per day.

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One olive tree left
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Security or not?

• The wall is not being built inside or even on the
  Green Line. It is being built entirely on
  Palestinian land.
• 500,000 Palestinians will end up in enclaves on
  the Israeli side of the wall. Would they not
  present a threat to Israels security?
• The wall is not a military solution
  strategically speaking, a wall that is to provide
  security would be a straight one, one that was as
  short as possible, but this wall takes all kinds
  of divergences and is very long.
• A wall on the Green Line would be one-third the
  length reducing the risk of breakthroughs,
  military deployment and initial cost (2 million
  per kilometer).

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Security or not?

• What is the rationale for building an Eastern
  wall? There is no threat from Jordan that
  borders this part of the West Bank. No suicide
  bombers have come over the Jordan River.
• Missiles fly over walls
• Israelis can be attacked abroad

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COSTS

• The cost of the wall is 2 million per kilometer.
  If the full 600 km route is implemented, total
  cost 1.2 billion
• Quote
• It would be cheaper to give each resident of
  Qedumim a villa in the center of Israel than to
  build this fence. Army source quoted in Yediot

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Even right-wing settlers know the fence is not
for security

• David Levy, Head of Jordan Valley Council
• It is clear to everyone that this is a political
  line behind which there is a political outlook.
  Such a fence is a political statement, a
  statement of annexing the Jordan Valley under
  cover of the security fence.
• The National Council for Peace and Security, a
  group of high-ranking retired officers
• The path of the wall was planned for political
  and not for security reasons.
• (Yediot)

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Case studies

• Quote As the Israeli newspaper, Yediot
  Aharanoth, points out
• Behind the separation fence are thousands of
  personal tragedies, which are entirely invisible
  to the Israeli public.

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Daba

• Farmlands to east of wall, they are trapped west
  of the wall in an enclave.
• 15 other communities in this situation.
• 250 dunums confiscated for wall. In 1983, Daba
  lost 125 dunums for construction of Alfe Menashe.
• Settlers enjoy running water and electricity,
  while the Palestinians in Daba rely upon water
  shipments and generators.

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Jayous

• 6 km east of the Green Line
• 1986 Israel confiscated 1,362 dunums Zufin
  settlement
• 1990 Israel confiscated 30 dunums dump site for
  nearby settlements
• 2003 the wall separates Jayous farmers from 9,000
  dunums of rich agricultural land that provided
  90 of towns total economic revenue
• All 7 of the towns water wells are behind the
  wall. The town receives running water only 2
  hours every three days, average per capita water
  consumption 20 liters per day, 5 times below
  WHOs minimum of 100 liters per day.

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Jayous lands
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Azzun Atme

• 3 km from Green Line, 10 km. southeast of
  Qalqilya.
• 1982 Israel constructed Shaare Tiqwa, between
  Beit Amin and Azzun Atme, effectively splitting
  the two neighbouring villages, disrupting
  territorial contiguity
• Village yields highest produce per dunum of land
  in West Bank.
• Today, main road to village completely blocked
  off, preventing shipment of produce.
• With wall, Azzun Atma will be surrounded by
  barrier on all sides and become an enclave.
• Residents will be caged into their village,
  unable to travel throughout West Bank or even
  visiting neighbouring villages
• Education curtailed because teachers will not be
  allowed to enter village.
• Impact on education, health, psychological
  well-being, employment, survival.

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Road between Beit Amin and Azzun Atme Settlement
of Shaare Tiqwa intruding between the two
villages
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Human Rights

• Btselem has listed the following infringements
  of human rights
• The right to freedom of movement
• The right to work and to an adequate standard of
  living
• The right to property

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Against International law

• Under international law, the wall is a form of
  collective punishment.
• Under Oslo II, Israel and the PA undertook that
  neither side shall initiate or take any step
  that will change the status of the West Bank and
  the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the
  permanent status negotiations.
• Such extensive destruction of private property,
  without genuine military necessity, amounts to a
  grave breach under article 147 of the Fourth
  Geneva Convention.

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The future

• Only 10 of historical Palestine will be left for
  any future state of Palestine and that would be
  truncated and encircled by Israel.
• The pattern of concentrating Palestinians into
  ever-smaller zones of territory will continue,
  and settlements will expand.
• Israeli activist
• Security for Israelis will be achieved only when
  security and freedom will be enjoyed by
  Palestinians.