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Israel Plans to Sandwich West Bank By Wall, Annex Jordan Valley
US: Israel Should Commit to Roadmap, Stop Settlement Activities
25/10/2003
Palestine Media Center- (PMC)
The Israeli “defense” ministry announced Friday new plans for the “security wall” that would eventually cut off the Jordan valley from the West Bank, which would mean annexing the main food basket for Palestinians.
A senior Israeli official said the Jordan River Valley, at the eastern edge of the West Bank, must remain under Israeli security control, and the plan for the wall that would cut the valley off from the rest of West Bank has been approved. However, no funds have yet been allocated for its construction, the official added.
According to Israeli statistics, nineteen illegal Jewish settlements exist in the Jordan River Valley, all of them located between the Palestinian towns of Jericho and Jiftliq.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, when asked about the plan in a television interview, confirmed its existence but gave no details about exactly when or where it would be built.
“At the moment, we are planning the route and when it is ready, it will be brought before the government (for approval),” Sharon said.
The international community has been strongly critical of the segregation wall, and even the United States, Israel’s strongest ally, has objected to the proposed route for the barrier because it cuts so far into the West Bank.
This week the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution demanding that Israel stop construction of the barrier and tear down the sections already completed, but Israel rejected the nonbonding resolution.
Israel has already finished building 150-kilometre out of the 300 km barrier, which is expected to be finished by end of the year.
The already built segregation wall has encircled tens of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank with electronic fences and concrete walls. Thousands of dunums of the West Bnak’c most fertile land has already been encroached upon.
“This fence allows Sharon to realize his dreams, to divide up the Palestinian population into small groups, a canonization,” said Dror Etkes of the Israeli group Peace Now.
The map of the new section outlined a series of double fences and barriers that will surround several West Bank towns, including Qibya, Beit Sira and Bir Nabala, isolating an estimated 70,000 Palestinians, according to some Israeli officials.
The wall will also contain several unconnected sections around the illegal settlements, including Ariel, a community of 18,000 Israelis some 25 km inside the West Bank.
US Says Israel Should Commit to Roadmap, Stop Settlement Activities
Meanwhile on Thursday, the United States called on Israel to stick to its commitments under the “roadmap”, after the Israeli Housing Ministry issued a tender for the construction of more than 300 new apartments in two illegal West Bank settlements.
The internationally-backed plan calls for a freeze on all settlement activity, including construction for what Israel calls “natural growth”, as part of the first stage of the Israeli-Palestinian agreement.
A ministry official said tenders had been issued for 153 new apartments in the illegal settlements of “Karnei Shomron”, near Nablus in the northern West Bank, and 180 others in “Givat Ze’ev”, near Jerusalem.
“We have made our policy clear, which is that, under the roadmap, Israel has made a commitment to stop settlement activity. Sticking to that commitment is important,” said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.
Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz said Friday that Israel was not fulfilling its commitments. “The government of Israel is not keeping to the road map agreement,” he told Israel Radio.
But a senior Israeli official said that as far as Tel Aviv was concerned, the internationally-brokered peace plan did not refer to a freeze on settlement growth.
“All legal tenders within existing communities are not included in the road map according to our interpretation and our understanding,” the official said.
“The Housing Ministry builds all over Israel, including the West Bank,” said ministry spokesman Kobi Bleich. “This tender is in line with a decision taken by the government of Israel.”
The Peace Now movement said the Israeli government has issued tenders for 1,627 housing units in the settlements since the beginning of the year.
“At the same time that Sharon embraces the road map in words, the government in effect has not stopped violating it,” the Peace Now spokesman said Thursday.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Sa’eb Erekat called the settlements and the West Bank separation wall the greatest obstacle to peace.
“We call on the United States to intervene to stop the Israeli government continuing settlement activities and walls,” Erekat said in reaction to the tenders.
“Settlements and walls are the No. 1 obstacle to peace,” he added.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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