Israeli West Bank barrier: Encyclopedia II - Israeli West Bank barrier - Opinions on the barrier

Israeli West Bank barrier - Opinions on the barrier

Israeli West Bank barrier - Israeli opinions

Israeli public opinion has been very strongly in favor of the barrier, partly in the hope that it will improve security and partly in the belief (denied by the government) that the barrier marks the eventual border of a Palestinian state. Due to the latter possibility, the settler movement opposes the barrier, although this opposition has waned since it became clear the barrier would be diverted to the east of major Israeli settlements such as Ariel. According to Haaretz, a survey conducted by of the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research, Tel Aviv University, there is an overwhelming support for the barrier among the Jewish population of Israel: 84% on March 2004 and 78% on June 2004. [56], [57]

Most Israelis believe the barrier, and intensive activity by the Israeli Defence Forces, to be the main factors in the decrease in successful suicide bomb attacks from the West Bank. The proponents of the barrier insist that reversible inconveniences to Palestinians should be balanced with the threats to lives of Israeli civilians and point out that the barrier is a non-violent way to stop terrorism and save innocent lives. [58]

Some Israelis, however, believe the barrier will have unintended consequences. Col. (res.) Shaul Arieli, who was the last commander of the Gaza regional brigade of the IDF, speculates that the effectiveness of the barrier will only be short-term. "The fence provides a partial security response to the terror threats and a good response to prevention of illegal immigration and prevention of criminal acts," he explains, "but on the other hand, in its current format it creates the future terror infrastructure because this terror infrastructure is precisely those people living in enclaves who will support acts of terror as the only possible tool that they perceive as being able to restore them the land, production sources and water wells taken from them." Arieli also said that the barrier is designed to induce the Arabs of the border region to leave so that Israel can expand. (Haaretz, February 18, 2004)

Haim Ramon, the Israeli Cabinet Minister for Jerusalem, said that while the barrier "was born, first and foremost, to prevent them from continuing to murder us" he added that the barrier "also makes it [Jerusalem] more Jewish. The safer and more Jewish Jerusalem will be, it can serve as a true capital of the state of Israel." [59] [60]

On August 17, 2005, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz said of the barrier: "Sharon has tried in vain to describe it as 'only another counterterrorism measure.' Nevertheless, it looks like a border and behaves like one, with barbed wire, electronic devices, concrete walls, watchtowers and checkpoints. Its creation set a crucial precedent in the unilateral division of the land, which came to fit Sharon perfectly." [61]

Israeli West Bank barrier - Palestinian opinions

The Palestinian population and its leadership are essentially unanimous in opposing the barrier. A significant number of Palestinians have been separated from their own farmlands or their places of work or study, and many more will be separated as the barriers near Jerusalem are completed. Furthermore, because of its planned route as published by the Israeli government, the barrier is perceived as a plan to confine the Palestinian population to specific areas, causing further humiliation [62] [63] [64]. They state that Palestinian institutions in Abu Dis will be prevented from providing services to residents in the East Jerusalem suburbs, and that a 10-minute walk has become a 3-hour drive in order to reach a gate, to go (if allowed) through a crowded military checkpoint, and drive back to the destination on the other side [65].

More broadly, Palestinian spokespersons, supported by many in the Israeli left wing and other organizations, claim that the hardships imposed by the barrier will breed further discontent amongst the affected population and add to the security problem rather than solving it. Some Palestinian organizations and the International Solidarity Movement have organized nonviolent resistance to the construction of the wall.

The Palestinian leadership, some Palestinian supporters, left-wing Israeli groups, and Israeli settler groups fear that the barrier will become the de facto border between an enlarged Israel and a future Palestinian state. Palestinians claim that the security explanation is an excuse for paving the way for an expansion of Israeli sovereignty [66].

Israeli West Bank barrier - International opinions

Most international governments agree that Israel should have the right to self-defence, but oppose the construction of the barrier outside the 1949 armistice lines as a violation of Palestinian rights.

On July 25, 2003, President George W. Bush said "I think the wall is a problem. And I discussed this with Ariel Sharon. It is very difficult to develop confidence between the Palestinians and Israel with a wall snaking through the West Bank." [67] The following year, addressing the issue of the barrier as a future border, he 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 and therefore not prejudice any final status issues including final borders, and its route should take into account, consistent with security needs, its impact on Palestinians not engaged in terrorist activities." [68] President Bush reiterated this position during a May 26, 2005 joint press conference with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the Rose Garden. [69] For additional detail on Bush's statements regarding final borders, see Road map for peace.

On February 20, 2004 the World Council of Churches adopted a statement demanding that Israel halt and reverse construction on the barrier and strongly condemning what they believe to be violations of human rights and humanitarian consequences that have resulted due to construction of the barrier. While acknowledging Israel's serious security concerns and asserting that the construction of the barrier on its own territory would not have been a violation of international law, the statement rejected what it saw as the creation of a new political boundary that confiscates Palestinian land. [70]

On March 8, 2005 the United Nations held a two day International Meeting on the Question of Palestine. The participants of this meeting released a final document that, among other things, expressed serious concern at the Israeli government's continuation of barrier construction, which they believe violates international law. The participants called on the international community "to adopt measures that would persuade the Government of Israel to comply with international law and the ruling of the International Court of Justice". [71]

On November 13, 2005 U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said that she supports the separation barrier Israel is building along the edges of the West Bank, and that the onus is on the Palestinian Authority to fight terrorism. "This is not against the Palestinian people," Clinton, a New York Democrat, said during a tour of a section of the barrier being built around Jerusalem. "This is against the terrorists. The Palestinian people have to help to prevent terrorism. They have to change the attitudes about terrorism." [72]

Israeli West Bank barrier - Names of the barrier

The name of the barrier is itself a political issue to some people. Israel most commonly refers to the barrier as the "separation fence" (גדר ההפרדה, gader ha'hafrada ▶ (help·info) or geder ha'hafrada) in Hebrew and "security fence" or "anti-terrorist fence" in English, with "seam zone" referring to the land between the fence and the 1949 armistice lines. Palestinians (including the media) most commonly refer to the barrier in Arabic as "jidar al-fasl al-'unsuri" ▶ (help·info), (racial segregation wall²), and some opponents of the barrier refer to it in English as an "apartheid wall". The United Nations and the international community use various names including separation/security and fence/wall/barrier.

Israeli West Bank barrier - Graffiti on wall sections

Graffiti on the Palestinian side of walled sections of the barrier has consistently been one of many forms of protest against its existence. Large areas of the walls feature messages relating to the conflict, demanding an end to the barrier, or criticizing its builders and its existence ('Welcome to the Ghetto-Abu Dis'). In August 2005, a graffiti artist named Banksy painted nine images on the Palestinian side of the barrier. [73] He describes the barrier as "the ultimate activity holiday destination for graffiti writers".

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Opinions on the barrier", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki