Press Room

AAI in the News

Redrawing the Road Map

Al-Jazeera.com
Posted on Saturday October 22, 2005

We have to decide on separation as a philosophy. There has to be a clear border. Without demarcating the lines, whoever wants to swallow 1.8 million Arabs will just bring greater support for Hamas.” That was Yitzak Rabin announcement in October 1994 following an outbreak of violent clashes in the occupied land.

This announcement shows that the separation policy adopted by the Jewish state is not a new idea, it is “philosophy” that has been undergone for more than a decade. Obviously, the border Rabin is hinting at is a margin to isolate Palestinians from Israelis. But is that the sole purpose behind constructing barriers which Tel Aviv seeks?

While the international community’s attention was diverted to the Gaza pullout which Israel carried out in August 2005; Israel was busy finalizing the “West Bank Barrier” or what is commonly known as the “Separation Barrier.” The Israeli government decided to build it in 2002, ever since controversy has been going over the real reasons for building such a huge fence.

The West Bank barrier is in fact part-wall, part-fence. Most of its 670-kilometer length is made up of a concrete base with a five-meter-high wire and net superstructure. Rolls of straight razor wire and a four-meter-deep ditch are placed on one side. Also, the structure is fitted with electronic sensors and has an earth covered “trace road” beside it where footprints of anyone crossing can be seen. There are sections of the wall around Jerusalem – blocking off Ram-Allah and Bethlehem and running through the village of Abu Dis.

Although the Israeli government has said that the purpose of the barrier is to prevent attacks; the barrier is the de facto of a future border. The route of the barrier includes on the Israeli side most of the highly populated Jewish settlements such as East Jerusalem, Ariel, Emmnuel and Maale Adumin. Consequently, the completion of the barrier will allow these settlements to expand more over the Palestinian lands.

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, has said that the barrier has “unilaterally helped to demarcate the route for future Israeli control over huge West Bank settlement blocs and large swathes of West Bank land.”

According to an editorial published in The Guardian, Jewish settlements during the first quarter of 2005 increased by 83%. About 4,000 homes are under construction in Israel’s West Bank colonies, with thousands more homes approved in the Ariel and Maale Adumim blocks that penetrate deep into the occupied territories. The total number of settlers has risen again with an estimated 14,000 moving to the West Bank, compared with 8,500 that were enforced to pull out of Gaza Strip.

Al-Jazeera.com

The editorial also mentioned that in July Israel has seized more land in the West Bank than it capitulated in Gaza. It withdrew from about 19 square miles of territory for 23 square miles of the West Bank.

In fact, Ariel Sharon, Israel’s PM; revealed his profound drive to expand the settlements without drawing the world’s attention in a meeting with his Likud party allies last month. “There’s no need to talk. We need to build, and we’re building without talking,” he said. That explains the efficiency in which the Gaza pullout was accomplished with. The Gaza pullout stands as a good trade off for more expansions, deeper control over the Palestinians and bigger numbers of settlements. Thus the fence plays a great role in determining the borders of the state of “Israel.”

Because of this barrier; hundreds of Palestinian farmers and traders are cut off from their land and means of economic survival. The impact of it has been felt acutely in Qalqilya, once known as the West Bank’s “fruit basket.” It is cut off on three sides – from the farms which supply its markets and the region’s second-largest water sources.

Moreover, Jerusalem is isolated from the rest of the West Bank. David Shearer, head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem, said, “Movement in Jerusalem will be with a magnetic card and a sophisticated system of gates. The access the Palestinians have enjoyed to their places of worship, to some of the best schools, to hospitals is now going to be severely restricted.”

The barrier will make East Jerusalem isolated from the rest of the West Bank by moves to link the city with Maale Adumim settlement. Therefore, this Palestinian land will be entirely bounded by large Jewish districts and its 200,000 residents will be cut off the occupied territory.

Because the absence of Washington and European or even UN pressure, Sharon has no incentive to negotiate or retreat his plans. Instead he shall resume the reverie of eating up as many Palestinian areas as he can to enlarge the Jewish state borders.

Obviously, the whole thing that is called the Road Map, signed in 2003, is a hilarious tale- Sharon does whatever he desires. In return, the international community does nothing. And who pays the price; the Palestinians.