The state of Israel faces many legitimate security concerns. Unfortunately, since the Likud (conservative) party took power Israel has moved away from a process of finding common ground and peace with Palestinians and other Arab neighbors. The most visible sign of turning away from the peace process has been the building of a wall to separate Palestinian citizens from their Israeli neighborhoods. The World Council of Churches has a new document on their web site called Security or Segregation: The Humanitarian Consequences of Israel’s Wall of Separation.
….the Israeli government has completed the construction of the first section of a physical barrier between Israel and the West Bank. Extending approximately 145 kilometres, this section will eventually become part of a barrier that – judging from recent Israeli confiscation orders on Palestinian-owned land – will encircle approximately 40 percent of the West Bank, which Israel plans to allot the Palestinians as part of a final settlement of the conflict.According to Israel the wall is meant solely to prevent suicide bombers from entering Israel from the West Bank. However, the wall does not follow the 1949 armistice line, the so-called Green Line, which constitutes the unofficial border between Israel and the West Bank. Instead, in most places the wall runs or will run deep inside the West Bank. The completed portion runs up to six kilometres east of the Green Line, whereas the planned route includes, among other areas, the settlement of Ariel some 20 km east of the Green Line. Finally, and even more disturbing, judging from the confiscation orders, the wall will eventually be extended to separate the future Palestinian enclaves from the Jordan Valley, thus completely surrounding the territories supposed to constitute, in the words of the Quartet Road Map, an independent, viable, sovereign Palestinian state.
Humanitarian groups have been concerned over how the wall will impact the lives of the Palestinian people. There is also opposition to the wall from political parties in Israel fighting the extremist Likud government. You can now read the full report online.
