April 4, 2003

Apartheid Wall

[Bethlehem, West Bank] Earlier this week, my good neighbor Ed invited me to join the MCC on a day trip to visit some of "The Wall" locations in the northern West Bank. We saw a few sites near the Jayous-Qalqiliya-Tulkarem area. "The Wall" or the "Apartheid Wall," as it is usually called around here, is a large wall built by Israel for their stated purpose of security. It is expected to be at least 360 km (216 miles) long. The wall will be composed of various sections -- concrete or barbed wire. The concrete wall will average 8 meters (25 feet) high, with dozens of armed concrete watchtowers, and a buffer zone of 30-100 meters wide for electric fences, trenches, cameras, sensors, and security patrols. Supposedly the wall is being built to keep Palestinian terrorists out of Israel.

Who can fault a country for wanting security for it's people, right? People need to feel safe and comfortable in their own homes, right? If the fine folk of Israel want to build a security fence on their property, then they should do it. Absolutely! Unfortunately, this Wall isn't being built on property in Israel, it's being built inside the occupied West Bank. 10% of the West Bank land will be confiscated due to the route of the wall.

Say you owned a house and you wanted to build a fence around your property. Do you take 10% of your neighbor's land to build your fence? Wouldn't it be more fair to build the fence on the property boundary? In this case on the Green Line?

The route of the wall will separate families. The route of the wall will separate farmers from their fields. The route of the wall will separate wells from those who desperately need water. The wall will separate animals from their pasture.

I know that the 14,000 people who will be in the no-man's land between the Wall and the Green Line are no concern of yours. And I'm sure you have more to do than worry about the 20,000 farmers who will be separated from their property -- losing their livelihoods and heritage. It's just plain bad luck for these people, right? Well, if your neighbor built his fence on your property, would that just be bad luck? ...Or would it just be wrong?

Not a superhighway, but the path of the Wall

Building the Wall

Their father lost about 150 acres of land to the Wall.

My good neighbor Ed listens as Jamal explains that in some places the Wall is 4 miles from the Green Line.

5,000 citrus trees were uprooted in this area of the Wall construction

For more Wall information, Jan 03, 2003 Abu Dis Wall