Wall
Will Isolate Thousands of Palestinians
From Their Land
Palestine Media Center
7 May, 2003
According to a recent report
by international donors, the unilateral separation wall being built
by Israel east of the green line borders with the West Bank could cut
off 12,000 Palestinians from their land, work and essential social services.
The report was researched
and written by a team of experts under the direction of the Local Aid
Coordination Committees (LACC) Humanitarian and Emergency Policy
Group, which includes the European Union, Norway, the United States,
the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, and the
World Bank.
International donors to the
Palestinians, including the US, commissioned the report because of concern
that the wall could harm Palestinian livelihoods and the viability
of local economies, and might negatively affect the delivery of humanitarian
aid and damage assistance projects.
However, the donors did not
call for tough actions towards the construction of the wall despite
hinting that Israel might be trying to change the current status quo
in the West Bank.
The report only recommends
that donors should closely monitor the construction of the barrier,
its impact and its implications for the Palestinian population, and
that donors should provide assistance to affected communities and households.
The wall is located as much
as six kilometers inside the West Bank, with plans underway to thrust
the wall as much as 20 km deeper into West Bank territory.
When completed, as many as
12,000 Palestinians could be left on the western, Israel-facing side
of the wall, cut-off from their land, workplaces and essential social
services, the report revealed.
Palestinians see the wall
as a strategic threat and accuse the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
of building it along the length of the West Bank so that it entirely
encircles any futuristic Palestinian state.
The first 80-mile stretch
of the segregation wall, running north from near the city of Qalqiliya,
is nearly complete and expected to be turned over to the control of
the Israeli occupation army in July.
By the end of the year, a
second section enclosing the entire northern border of the West Bank
should be finished and work will then concentrate on the southern part
of the Palestinian territory around occupied east Jerusalem and Hebron.
To obtain land on which the
wall is being constructed in the West Bank, Israel is annexing private
Palestinian property pursuant to military orders.
Every Palestinian landowners
appeal to any Israeli body ranging from Israeli military committees
to the Israeli High Court has been rejected.
The report also further hinted
that Israel is violating the agreements signed with the Palestine National
Authority (PNA).
The 1995 Interim Agreement
between the Israel and the PNA states that neither party will
change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome
of the permanent status negotiations and that the integrity
and status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip will be preserved
during the interim period, the report emphasized.