Sharon's wall
By
Salama A. Salama
The security wall Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is so desperate to complete represents one of the most insidious measures undertaken by Israel. Not only does it impose a political barrier on the Palestinian state implied in the roadmap, it also usurps yet more Palestinian land from the ever-shrinking patch of post-partition Palestinian territory. The Palestinians will end up with no more than 42 per cent of 80 per cent of 22 per cent of their original homeland.
To discover what this mathematical formula means we should begin with the figure of 22 per cent figure. This represents the land area mentioned in the 1993 Oslo Accords. It includes both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as stated in the agreement accepted by the Palestinians. But Israel procrastinated over implementation and did not hand over the majority of the territories it had committed itself to return. During the Camp David negotiations in 2000 former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to return only 80 per cent of the land it had agreed to return in Oslo. The Intifada began when Palestinian President Yasser Arafat refused to sign this amended agreement. Sharon's final offer has been reduced to a miserly 42 per cent, and only after he has redrawn the borders by constructing a reinforced concrete and electrified barbed wire fence.
No one knows how much importance Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) gave to this issue during his talks with Sharon or the Americans. It was reported that US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice had asked Sharon to halt the construction of the security fence. This fence will affect two million Palestinians in the West Bank who will, in effect, be sealed behind the concrete wall. Another one million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip will fall beneath the shadow of the barbed wire. With this fence Sharon will be able to further confiscate vast areas of Palestinian land under the guise of the roadmap. His excuse will be that he is undertaking measures necessary to protect Israeli's security.
The true aim of the fence, however, is to prevent the emergence of a viable Palestinian state. If such a state comes into existence it will be in name only, for it will be unable to control its borders, its airspace and its water resources. And this is exactly what Sharon wants to achieve.
According to reports published in an Israeli newspaper, the security fence will extend for more than 1,000 kilometres -- a figure which Sharon confirmed in an interview with Yediot Ahranot newspaper.
The Green Line marking the 1967 border was no longer than 360 kilometres, which confirms Israel's plan to incorporate Palestinian areas and villages beyond the Green Line. These are precisely the areas in which Israel has implanted large numbers of settlements. It has no intention of dismantling them.
Once Sharon has finished constructing his security fence -- the cost of $1 billion is being partly funded by the US under the pretext of helping protect Israel against "terrorists" -- the Palestinians will find themselves barricaded inside two large prisons, surrounded by electric fences and huge concrete barricades. As for the residents of the Palestinian villages which Israel has seized, they will be stripped of all their rights.
These are some of the outcomes of the roadmap.
