INDEPTH: MIDDLE EAST
Israel's barrier
CBC News Online | Jan. 6, 2006
An Israeli security vehicle drives along the wall near the Palestinian West Bank town of Qalqiliya, Wednesday Oct. 1, 2003. (AP Photo/ Eitan Hess-Ashkenazi)
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What does the Israeli barrier look like?
The barrier is a mainly concrete-and-steel wall, separating Israeli settlements and the Palestinian population in the West Bank. But the structure of the barrier varies along its length. At some points it's a three-metre-high electric barrier. At others, it is a six- to eight-metre-high concrete wall, topped with razor wire and flanked on either side by four-metre-deep ditches. Other elements include:
- A ditch and a pyramid-shaped stack of six coils of barbed wire on the eastern side of the structure, barbed wire only on the western side.
- A path enabling the patrol of Israeli forces on both sides of the structure.
- An intrusion-detection barrier, in the centre, with sensors to warn of any incursion.
- A smoothed strip of sand that runs parallel to the barrier, to detect footprints.
How long is it?
When construction is completed, the barrier will be 730 kilometres long. Construction of the first phase – a 50-km-long barrier – began on three sides of Jerusalem in the summer of 2002 to cut the city off from the West Bank. A similar project was started at the same time in the northwest of Israel.
Two Palestinian cities – Tulkarem and Qalqiliya – are surrounded by the barrier. As well, several Palestinian villages have been cut off from each other.
What are the implications?
Israel claims that since construction on the barrier began, attacks originating from the West Bank have dropped by 90 per cent. The government says the barrier is a temporary measure to protect Israelis until the country's security can be guaranteed.
Palestinians fear the barrier, which impinges on the West Bank, will become the de facto border, and that some of their land will become part of Israel. The barrier has sliced off about 17 per cent of the West Bank's area.
Israel has set up gates that are supposed to allow people and vehicles to cross through the barrier. But the establishment of the barrier has still made it more difficult for Palestinians to work in Israel. As well, some people have been cut off from their families on the other side.
Some Palestinian farmers have also been separated from their lands. Special agricultural gates have been set up that are supposed to allow those farmers and their workers access to that land.
For military purposes, Israel seized some of the land it needed to build the barrier. That land remains the property of the owner, even though the owner no longer has access to it. The Israeli government offers compensation to those people and they have the right to challenge the seizure.
Israel claims that since construction on the barrier began, attacks originating from the West Bank have dropped by 90 per cent. The government says the barrier is a temporary measure to protect Israelis until the country's security can be guaranteed.
A Palestinian shopkeeper sits next to a section of the barrier in the West Bank town of Abu Dis, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Tuesday, July 6, 2004. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
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Is the barrier legal?
According to the Supreme Court of Israel – yes. It ruled on June 30, 2004, that Israel has a right to build the barrier for security. But it also ruled that the government would have to find an alternate route for a planned 40-kilometre section of the barrier and that a three-kilometre section already built would have to be ripped up.
The court ruled that Israel would have to balance its security needs with the needs of Palestinians. The court decision said the barrier caused undue hardship for 35,000 Palestinians who would be cut off from their farmland, schools and jobs.
On July 20, 2004, the General Assembly passed a resolution demanding that Israel tear down the wall. The vote was 150-6 in support of the resolution. The U.S., Australia and Israel voted against it. Canada abstained.
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, called the resolution "simply outrageous."
"Thank God that the fate of Israel and of the Jewish people is not decided in this hall," said Gillerman after the vote.
The resolution followed a ruling on July 9, 2004, by the International Court of Justice, saying the barrier should be torn down because it violates international laws and infringes on the rights of Palestinians. It also recommended compensation to Palestinians whose homes and businesses were destroyed in its construction.
Israel's Foreign Ministry said the court "has no authority to deal with disputes between Israel and the Palestinians."
Neither the UN resolution nor the ruling of the International Court of Justice, the UN's main legal body, is binding.
The following is adapted from a radio report by CBC Middle East correspondent Margaret Evans.
An Israeli human rights group says there are now about 57,000 Palestinians isolated in enclaves surrounded by the security barrier. The United Nations says that if the series of walls, fences, barbed wire and ditches is completed along its planned route, about a third of West Bank Palestinians will be affected. About 274,000 will be trapped in enclaves and about 400,000 blocked from their fields, jobs, schools and hospitals.
But some Palestinians are already living with what they call a new Berlin Wall. In a sewing factory tucked away in a warehouse in the town of Barta'a Sharqiya, rows of women bend over their work, their electric sewing machines humming as needles fly across long stretches of fabric, landing in great billowing piles on the floor.
It's an important source of income, but for many of the women it's also a dismal existence, the sheets they sew for a living giving them what little colour they have in their lives. Sabaah Abuanis, a 36-year-old single mother, is from a village not far from Barta'a, but she hasn't been able to go there for a month. "You never know if they're going to let you in or out," she says. "I live right here in the factory. They've made a special room for us," she says. "A small one."
Barta'a is a part of the West Bank, but Israel's security barrier has effectively cut it off, turning it into an enclave between Israel and the rest of the West Bank, where many of the sewing industry's workers live. Those workers are not being given entry permits to Barta'a, leaving women like Sabaah in a bind. If they leave Barta'a they run the risk of not being allowed back in again. So, many are simply staying, camped out in the warehouses.
"I am extremely depressed," says Sabaah. "I'm worried, and unable to see my son. This is extremely difficult. We've gone back a hundred years." Sabaah's son lives about a 40-minute drive away, but she only sees him about once every three or four weeks. That's how often she's willing to risk leaving Barta'a to visit home, sometimes using a fake ID provided by the factory owners to get back in.
It's easy to pick Sabaah's son Hanni out of the crowd. He looks just like her. Sabaah is supporting not only Hanni, but also her parents who take care of him, her brothers who can't find work, and their families, 22 people in all. The family says they're grateful to Sabaah, but there is also an element of shame in the household and the fact that she's the sole breadwinner.
"The situation has forced Sabaah to leave her home and to go to work," says her father, Hadj. "There is no work for anybody else and for me, as a father, I find it difficult to think that my daughter is away from me for 15 or 20 days at a time, but that's the only way," he says.
It's a familiar story in this area, called the seam zone. Many young Palestinian women apprenticed as seamstresses to take up jobs in the 1990s, when many Arab Israelis moved their sewing factories across the Green Line so they could employ West Bank workers. But now those employers say the local industry is under threat.
"We have five factories, and two factories are closed. It's a bad situation," says Hikmat Hatib, the owner of the factory where Sabaah works. He says if he loses any more workers because of the barrier he'll think about moving. "I may be closed and will leave to Jordan or another place. Situation is very bad, and I not see that the situation will be better," he says.
Nor do the seamstresses depending on the seam zone for their livelihood and that of their families, but they say they have no option. So they work eight-hour days, six days a week, and then spend the night on mattresses on the floor in the basement.
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