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CounterPunch
October
30, 2002
Sharon's Wall
by MICHAEL S. LADAH
Many of the atrocities that are being committed
by Israel in the West Bank and Gaza against the Palestinian population
have had little coverage by news media around the world. Similar
to the cover up that the Israeli government and its military
attempted in the aftermath of the Jenin atrocities, the Israeli
Ministry of Defense and the Israeli Defense Force are doing their
best to cover up, and divert attention from, major crimes in
the making. One of these crimes has been in progress for a while
with little attention from the world.
The Israeli government, with the expressed
approval of Ariel Sharon, has prepared a plan to build a wall
to encircle the western perimeter of the West Bank and separate
it completely from Israel, in the same style as the infamous
Berlin Wall. The government has not published the details of
the plan and considers it a "secret" including the
specifications of the wall and its location with respect to the
Green Line, the 1967 line of demarcation. While the plan seems
to be more advanced in the northern part of the West Bank (the
first phase), land confiscation has been in progress along the
entire length of the planned wall. The confiscation of Baron
Der, a church property north of Bethlehem, has been the most
visible example of property confiscation in preparation for construction
of the wall.
Baron Der is Armenian Church property
located in the northern outskirts of Bethlehem. The 50 acre
property was bought in 1641 by Grigor Baron Der (1560-1645),
the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem. Over the past five centuries,
Baron Der has served as an Armenian Apostolic administrative
center, a location for religious retreats, a religious training
center, an income producing orchard and an archaeological site.
The property contains a monastic building that has served as
a residence for Armenian monks who officiate in the Church of
the Nativity in Bethlehem. Armenian monks from Jerusalem also
use Baron Der for their annual retreat and for spiritual training.
The land holds great meaning for the Armenian Patriarchate of
Jerusalem, the Armenian Apostolic Catholicosate in Etchmiadzin,
His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of all Armenians, His Holiness
Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, Armenian Palestinians
and Armenians throughout the world. The confiscation of Baron
Der has very special significance to all Palestinians, Christians
and Moslems, and symbolizes the repression that the Israeli government
has been practicing on all Palestinians including all minorities
within them.
For over a year, the Israeli army has
occupied the Armenian property of Baron Der, citing Israeli security
as its justification. In April of 2002, without the knowledge
or consent of the Armenian Patriarchate, the Israeli Army paved
a military road through Baron Der. The road is approximately
1000 meters long and 50 meters wide. When paving the road, the
IDF destroyed tombs and antiquities on the property, uprooted
many of the olive trees that had been on the property for centuries
and rendered the property essentially unusable. At that time,
an Israeli military commander and representative of the Israeli
Army stated that the road would be for temporary use only. He
further "reassured" the Armenian Patriarchate that
the Israeli Army would restore the area to its original state
once the situation in the region settled.
In recent weeks, the Israeli government
has escalated its violations against the Armenian Church by announcing
its intention to convert the road into a permanent security wall.
The wall would effectively divide the property into two useless
plots. The Israeli Ministry of Defense has stated that the security
wall is intended to be a separation wall between the West Bank
and Israel, but the Israeli authorities have offered no satisfactory
explanation why the wall can not be built around the property.
The good-faith efforts of the Armenian Patriarchate to reach
a negotiated settlement with the Israeli authorities have either
been ignored or have met with responses that have been totally
unsatisfactory. As of this time, the seizure of the property
continues, and Israeli plans to divide the property with a permanent
wall are moving forward. Apparently this had always been the
intention of the Israeli government and their discussions with
the Armenian Church had been nothing more than the usual deception
practiced by the Israeli government regarding everything they
have done and continue to do in the West Bank and Gaza.
The impact of the separation wall on
the entire West Bank will be the same as its impact on Baron
Der. It will divide properties, separate them permanently from
their owners, separate entire Palestinian communities from the
rest of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and make
travel for Palestinians on the eastern side of the wall even
more difficult than it is today. The exact location of the wall
may be a "secret," but the Israeli human rights organization
B'Tselem has been able to piece the route that the wall will
follow in the northern part of the West Bank (the first phase).
B'Tselem's information is based on what little has been published
in the Israeli media about the wall, on actual confiscation of
Arab land by the IDF in the name of "security," and
on contacts with various Israeli government agencies. B'Tselem
has published a position paper on the infamous wall, a map showing
where the wall is expected to be built in the northern West Bank
and the specification of the wall. B'Tselem's paper outlines
the devastation that the wall will have on the Palestinian population.
According to B'Tselem, the location of
Sharon's Wall, the Israeli Berlin Wall, will be up to several
kilometers inside the West Bank (east of the 1967 border). B'Tselem's
map traces the route of the wall and shows the Palestinian communities
that will end up on the west (Israeli) side of the wall once
it is built and, therefore isolated from the rest of the West
Bank Palestinians. Palestinians on either side of the wall will
be denied access to their farms, orchards and their places of
work on the opposite sides of the wall. Whether the communities
isolated on the west side will be allowed to stay on the Israeli
side is not known at this time but many of us can guess that
the IDF will find an ingenious way to evict the population to
the east side of the wall and confiscate their land for Israeli
settlers, again in the name of security. The wall will also
cut off some of the Palestinian roads and in some cases will
cause what is today a 10 minute car journey to take hours especially
that the new journey will cross one or more additional Israeli
checkpoints.
The wall, which is really an elaborate
separation barrier "system" will consist of a "smart"
fence in the center with a barrier (trench) against vehicles
to the east of the wall and another fence to the east of the
trench for delay purposes. The average width of the barrier
ranges from 50 to 70 meters and may reach up to 100 meters in
some locations. Depth barriers may also be added in areas where
the wall may come "too close" to the Green Line. It
should be expected that an additional buffer zone east of the
wall will be declared a military zone off-limits to the Palestinian
population.
While this wall is defended by the Israeli
government as necessary for security, it is obviously intended
to give Israel the excuse to grab more Palestinian land from
any potential Palestinian state. Imagine 10 to 15 kilometers
taken away from the perimeter of the West Bank bordering Israel;
even if one conservatively assumes an average of 5 kilometers
will be lost to the west of the wall (let alone the buffer zone
on the east side) along the West Bank border with Israel, that
will constitute a loss close to 28 percent of the current land
mass of the West Bank. As with its other actions since 1967,
Israel is again attempting to change the facts on the ground
to influence the outcome of future negotiations and continue
its efforts to make life ever more miserable for the Palestinian
population with the hope that they may simply give up and leave.
The saddest part about this wall is that
it is being planned and built illegally, in violation of international
law. Israel is building their Sharon Wall in violation of the
UN Declaration of Human Rights, in violation of several UN Security
Council resolutions prohibiting Israel from such actions, and
under the nose of the international community including the United
Nations and the "honest peace broker," the United States.
No one so far has lifted a finger to oppose this yet another
crime against the people of Palestine. As far as our free press
is concerned, this development must not really be news worthy
of printing, and as far as our president is concerned, Sharon
is a man of peace.
Michael S. Ladah
is an Arab American who lived and worked in various parts of
the Middle East. He is the author of "Quicksand, Oil and
Dreams: The Story of One of Five Million Dispossessed Palestinians."
He can be reached at: mikeladah@hotmail.com
Notes:
B'Tselem's position paper is available
on their web site http://www.btselem.org
B'Tselem's map of the northern West Bank
showing the route of the security wall is available on their
web site http://www.btselem.org
Map of the West Bank showing the location
of Israeli check-points is available on
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/maps/westbank_checkpoints.htm
Other maps of interest regarding the
occupied West Bank and Gaza may be found on http://www.palestinemonitor.org/maps/maps.html
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