Only alert readers may have noticed that the Israeli-biased American
"Road Map to Peace", already being imposed on the
Palestinians, has not even been accepted by Israel's rejectionist
government. Asked about it, Secretary of State Colin Powell said that
accepting or not accepting it "didn't really matter" –
when Israel is concerned, to be sure; I have a hunch that had the
Palestinians declined to accept it, the American reaction would have
been quite different.
But for once, I agree with Mr. Powell: it really does not matter. A
central function of the "Road Map" is to distract from the
actual map of the Palestinian territories. This map is being radically
altered, and unlike the Road Map, which will be forgotten like all its
cynical forerunners ("Zinni Plan", "Tenet Plan",
"Mitchell Report", "Regional Peace Conference"
etc.), the geographical map of Palestine is here to stay, with a huge
Wall now being built in its middle of the "Security Fence"
in official Israeli language, in fact an Apartheid Wall.
PM Sharon has long opposed the idea of a barrier between Israel and
the West Bank. As late as April 2002, Sharon was still rejecting it in
spite of public pressure, in spite of demands raised by both Israel's
President and the Head of the Secret Service, and, above all, in spite
of hundreds of Israeli civilian victims to Palestinian terrorism,
whose death could have been prevented by such a fence. Not before June
2002, in what was portrayed as a victory for Labour's leader
Ben-Eliezer (then Defence Minister in a unity coalition) imposed on
Sharon against his will, was the huge construction project finally
launched.
Since, unlike their ruling junta, most Israelis do want to end the
occupation, support for the Fence is overwhelming. Most Israelis
believe it will bring security, and eventually turn into a border
between Israel and a Palestinian State. Israel's millionaires, as
Yedioth Ahronoth exposed (22.11.2002), have a special reason to
celebrate: hundreds of Palestinian olive trees on the route of the
fence are rooted out by the constructors, smuggled and sold for the
gardens of rich Israelis (up to $5.000 for an ancient tree).
Palestinian owners who dare ask for compensation for their often only
source of income are driven away by threats and beating.
Change of Heart?
The junta's change of heart towards the Wall happened only after
"Operation Defence Shield" of April 2002. As long as Israeli
terror victims could be used to justify the repeated incursions into
autonomous Palestinians areas, no fence was built. After
"Defensive Shield", when Israel had finally managed to
reoccupy the entire West Bank and to destroy the Palestinian Authority
(existing in name only ever since), the Wall could be erected.
But the deeper reason for the apparent change of heart is that the
junta found a way to use the Wall for its ends: as part of its project
of destroying the Palestinians. This cannot be grasped without taking
a look at the actual route of the Wall.
Why, you may wonder: isn't the Wall following the Green Line
separating Israel from the West Bank? – Not quite. If this had been
Israel's intention, we could have had Peace long ago. The whole point
is that Israel refuses to give up the West Bank, and building a Wall
on the Green Line is the last thing the junta had in mind. The Wall is
constructed deep in Palestinian territory, in order to rob as much
Palestinian land and water as possible. A good example is the small
village of Mas'ha, where a joint group of Palestinians, Israelis and
internationals has set a small camp trying to attract attention and to
fight the ongoing atrocity.
Mas'ha as Example
The village of Mas'ha is adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Elkana,
about 7km away from the green line. On April 2003, Israeli bulldozers
started to separate Mas'ha by an 8m high concrete wall from its only
remaining source of livelihood: agricultural land, mostly olive trees.
98% of the lands of Mas'ha will be placed on the Israeli side of the
fence. The fence also disconnects the road from Jenin to Ramallah, a
segment of which will now be in the Israeli side of the fence.
It wasn't only land greed that sent the bulldozers to the lands of
Mas'ha. These lands are on the western part of the large water
reservoir originating in the West Bank, whose waters flow under the
ground also to the centre of Israel. Out of 600 million cubic metre of
water that this reservoir provides in a year, Israel withdraws about
500 million. Control over the water sources has always been a central
Israeli motivation for maintaining the occupation. The first
settlements, like Elkana, were located in critical locations for
drilling. Since 1967, Israel has prohibited Palestinians from digging
new wells, but in the lands of Mas'ha there are still many operating
older wells. In isolating the village from its wells, Israel attempts
both to control the water reserves, and to eliminate livelihood
sources, thus forcing its residents out.
I went to Mas'ha a couple of weeks ago. The huge barrier was not yet
complete: it consisted of a 3m deep trench, which we could still cross
with some difficulty at a shallow point, and of a razed plateau, 80 ?
130m wide, on which the gigantic wall, with barbed wire, cameras,
patrol road etc. would be built (see picture from another location).
It's not a make-shift fence: it's a huge barrier meant to be there for
decades, creating a durable new physical reality. It twists like a
snake around the cultivated hills, encircling the village on three
sides just a few steps away from its last houses. The owners of the
lands were told there would be gates in the wall, which would enable
them to access their lands; "they just didn't tell us who will
hold the key", say in bitter irony the siege-learned farmers, who
have already lost most of their lands to the settlements of Elkana and
Etz Ephraim, all built on Mas'ha's lands in previous decades.
And Mas'ha is just one non-unique example. Out of 12.500 dunums of the
village of Jius, 600 dunums are confiscated for 6km of wall, and 8.600
dunums will be on its Israeli side. The 550 families, half of which
used to work in Israel when this was still possible and were then
pushed back to agriculture, now lose their last source of income
(Giedon Levi, Ha'aretz 2.5.2003).
Secrets and Lies
It may be clear by now why the junta refuses to give information about
the route of the Wall, as B'tselem Newsletter describes in detail. The
Green Line is 350km long; present reports speak of a 600 km long Wall
on the west side of the West Bank alone. Alone? – Yes: because as
Ha'aretz (23.3.2003) mentioned en passante just once, without any
details, comment or follow-up yet another, eastern wall is planned.
This crucial information virtually escapes public attention. Since
most Israelis think the Fence is built along the Green Line, they do
not even suspect another wall encircling the Palestinians from the
back as well.
Just two months before the fence plan was confirmed in his cabinet,
Sharon was quoted in Yedioth Ahronoth (26.4.2002). The journalist was
outraged by what he considered Sharon's pretexts against erecting a
wall. Sharon is accused of exaggerations, turning the simple project
of a 350km fence along the Green Line into an unfeasible 1.000km long
enterprise:
"Sharon's favourite way to inflate data is simply to double the
numbers. 'You cannot have a fence just on one side of the seam zone',
he told police officers, 'You have to have fences on both sides, and
there is the Jordan Valley where another fence on both sides is
needed'. [?] To sabotage the separation [?], Sharon is talking about
two different routes: two fences on different locations on the seam
line, and yet another two fences between Israel and Jordan. This way,
you really get to 1.000km".
But Sharon was not exaggerating: we now know that the western barrier
is already 600km long, and adding a similar fence on the east makes
Sharon's numbers look rather underestimated. What the journalist did
not realise, was that Sharon was just pretending to oppose the fence,
while planning its actual route so as to maximize Israel's share of
the territory; that the Eastern fence would not be built between
Israel and Jordan, but in the middle of the West Bank; and that
Sharon, to get public support, wisely presented the Apartheid Wall as
his pragmatic surrender to Labour and to public pressure, while in
fact it was his scheme, elaborated by him long before he found the
opportunity to carry it out, camouflaged as yielding to dovish
pressure to strengthen his "moderate" image.
The Actual Map
The following map, prepared by Palestinian sources is based on the
parts of the wall already erected, those under construction, and
confiscation orders issued to land owners ? shows approximately what
Israel is up to. Leaving the lion's share of the West Bank outside the
Wall in Israeli hands, even what looks like two contiguous Bantustans
are in fact crisscrossed by chains of Israeli settlements and
roads-for-Jews-only.
The UN Resolution of 1947 allocated 45% of British Mandate Palestine
to a Palestinian State. In 1948, Israel occupied 78% of the land,
leaving just 22% of the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinians. This
is all they have been demanding since 1993. Now, Israel is robbing
more than the better half of these 22% left. Six million Israelis are
to have about 90% of the land (and water), whereas three-and-a-half
million Palestinians, many of them refugees, are pushed to starve into
what is left, locked behind gigantic walls in open-air prisons, with
no land, no water and no hope. The moral way to peace, love and
security, no doubt.
The Apartheid Wall will be 8m high and probably 1.000km long. For
comparison, China's Great Wall ? the only human-made object seen from
outer space ? is 6.700km long, whereas the Berlin Wall was a dwarf,
just 155km long and 3,6m high. Keeping silent on this gigantic project
and its genocidal implications, meant to prevent any fair future
settlement (not to mention the Road Map), is a moral crime, of which
almost the entire Western media is guilty.