People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges

Politics are not my forte. I am generally aware of what is going on in the world and why. but I must admit that I was surprised when I heard about THE WALL Israel is building.

I had of course heard about it, but was ignorant about the details. When I heard that the wall is supposed to be 703 kilometres once finished and that approximately 58% has already been constructed, my jaw dropped.

Isn't this the world upside down? Isn't this World War II all over again but upside down?

“You don’t simply bundle people onto trucks and drive them away…I prefer to advocate a positive policy, to create, in effect, a condition that in a positive way will induce people to leave.” – Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel

Large areas of fertile Palestinian farmland have been destroyed or seized by the Israeli army to make way for the wall and other larger areas have been cut off from the rest of the West Bank. When completed, the wall will cut off more than 15% of the West Bank land from the rest of the West Bank and some 270,000 Palestinians living in these areas will be trapped in closed military areas between the wall and the Green Line or in enclaves encircled by the wall.

The route of the wall has been designed so as to encompass a large number of Israeli settlements inside the Occupied Territories, which have been built and continue to be expanded in violation of international law.

The Wall will be standing in 50 and even in 100 years, if the reasons for it are not removed - Erich Honecker

The International Court of Justice has concluded that the barrier violates international law. Despite this violation, the international community has done nothing to stop the “transfer” from happening.

Rather, the international community has continued to finance Israel’s expansionist actions: Israel has received $85 billion from the U.S. alone since 1948; more than the aid received by the nations of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean combined.

George W. Bush said in a letter to Sharon on April 14, 2004 that it "should be a security rather than political barrier, should be temporary rather than permanent'. Who is he kidding? How can a solid, concrete wall be temporary? At the cost of 12 million NIS or 2.8 million USD per km, the wall is cannot be called a “temporary” measure.

Palestinian terrorism has to be rejected and condemned, yes. But it should not be translated defacto into a policy of support for a really increasingly brutal repression, colonial settlements and a new wall - Zbigniew Brzezinski

Professor Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories says that "the policies being pursued, in Gaza in particular, have holocaustal implications if they are not changed. And the mind-set of holding an entire people responsible for opposition and resistance embodies a kind of collective punishment psychology that was very characteristic of the way the Nazis justified what they did to the Jewish people."

I do not want to discuss the pro and cons of this wall - it seems a very controversial and sensitive issue that cannot be solved. I just find it incredible that after all the past wars (and especially WWII) have taught us, we continue to make the same mistakes. We should remember:

WALLS DON'T KEEP OTHER PEOPLE OUT, THEY ONLY FENCE YOU IN.

Sources and reference material:
Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre
Wikipedia
Anarchists against the wall
Professor Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories
A conversation with Richard Falk
The UN and human rights - a screaming start
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Israel and the Occupied Territories: The place of the fence/wall in international law
In the war of words, The Times is Israel's ally



See also:
United States-Mexico barrier
Berlin Wall