Israel's wall has forced Palestinians to move home - right into Jerusalem
Stephen Farrell, writing in the Times Newspaper
"East to West, the flight has begun. Israel’s controversial “separation barrier”, expanding inexorably over wadis and high streets, is near completion along large stretches of its route. Slab by 30ft slab, it seals off Jewish-majority West Jerusalem to protect it from West Bank suicide bombers. Except that the wall designed to keep out Palestinians has driven thousands of them into inner Jerusalem.
Most East Jerusalem Arabs lucky enough to hold the much-prized Israeli Jerusalem identity cards granting them residency rights have already slipped inside the concrete curtain before its gates slam shut.
The result is drastic social and demographic changes to the outskirts of a Biblical city that is now twice-walled — from some vistas Ariel Sharon’s concrete legacy is clearly visible outside Suleiman the Magnificent’s Old City ramparts.
The “outer” neighbourhoods now lie half-deserted, abandoned by those able and wealthy enough to move.
In the “inner” suburbs the laws of supply and demand have doubled rents and increased land prices in Arab neighbourhoods and even — irony of ironies — forced the new arrivals into Jewish areas. “Many Arabs are moving into the settlements because they are very close to the Arab areas,” said Raed Jaber, a 27-year-old Arab from al-Eizariya, who now owns a creperie serving the overwhelmingly Jewish residents of the settlement of Pisgat Zeev.
“I’ll move in myself in a year or so when I get married,” he shrugs, dismissing antipathy from religious Jews who have leafleted the area urging residents not to rent to Arabs. Pisgat Zeev is regarded as a neighbourhood of Jerusalem by Israel, but lies beyond the green line and was built on land captured by Israel in the 1967 war.
On its website the Israeli Ministry of Defence points out that it only becomes a wall — it prefers the euphemism “solid barrier system” — along a small fraction of its route in densely populated urban areas such as Jerusalem and “to prevent sniper fire into Israel and on major highways and roads”. A few minutes’ drive north of Jerusalem city centre the Arab neighbourhood of Dahiyat al-Bareed lies just on the wrong side, by a few metres. Here the towering barricade divides streets and even families, local frustration registered by “Victory to Hassan Nasrallah” and a swastika daubed on the bare concrete. Taxis and commuters can still flit through a narrow gap left for builders to complete the final section, but this is expected to close within weeks. The exodus is evident. Streets are empty, the school roll has fallen from 1,500 to 500 pupils, blocks of flats have lost 80 per cent of their tenants and businesses have closed, moving north to Ramallah.Source: Times. Read rest of article here
Further evidence of West Bank Palestinians on the Israeli side of the Separation Wall
In a USA Today article, Israeli government spokseman Zalman Shoval admitted tens of thousands of West Bank Palestinians are now on the Israeli side of the Apartheid Wall.
"The starting point is not necessarily the Green Line. The starting point is really how to get the best security ... and how to avoid making life difficult for those 50,000 Palestinians who find themselves ... on the wrong side of the fence," he said.
B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights organisation puts the figure much, much higher. "The dominant principle in setting the route in the Jerusalem area is to run the route along the city's municipal border. In 1967, Israel annexed into Jerusalem substantial parts of the West Bank, a total of some 70,000 dunams [17,500 acres]. Some 220,000 Palestinians now live in these annexed areas."
They go on to observe,
"Israeli officials state at every occasion that two considerations were instrumental in choosing the route: maintaining security and obstructing Palestinian life as little as possible. However, using the municipal border as the primary basis for determining the route is inconsistent with these two considerations. On the one hand, the route leaves more than 200,000 Palestinians, who identify with the struggle of their people, on the "Israeli" side of the barrier; on the other hand, the route separates Palestinians and curtails the existing fabric of life on both sides of the barrier."
In this Agence France Presse report of October 2007, some 300 Palestinians were evicted from their tents near Hebron because they too are on the 'wrong' side of the barrier.
The Jewish Virtual Library also admits that in Jerusalem, "An estimated 55,000 Jerusalem Arabs from four neighborhoods are expected to be on the Palestinian side of the fence while 180,000 Arab residents of the city remain on the Israeli side of the barrier."
It is heartening that there has been a major reduction in the number of terrorist suicide attacks in Israel. It is obvious that construction of the Separation Barrier has indeed restricted access to Israel from potential suicide bombers in the West Bank, which is in itself a good thing. However, the presence of tens of thousands of West Bank Palestinians now living on the Israeli side of the Separation Barrier undermines the credibility of the argument that it was built entirely for security.
The ruling of the International Court of Justice on the illegality of the wall may be viewed here
Summary of International Court of Justice Ruling:
1. The construction of the wall being built by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and its associated régime, are contrary to international law;
2 Israel is under an obligation to terminate its breaches of international law; it is under an obligation to cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall being built in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, to dismantle forthwith the structure therein situated, and to repeal or render ineffective forthwith all legislative and regulatory acts relating thereto, in accordance with paragraph 151 of this Opinion;
3. Israel is under an obligation to make reparation for all damage caused by the construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem;
4. All States are under an obligation not to recognize the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the wall and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by such construction; all States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 have in addition the obligation, while respecting the United Nations Charter and international law, to ensure compliance by Israel with international humanitarian law as embodied in that Convention;
5. The United Nations, and especially the General Assembly and the Security Council, should consider what further action is required to bring to an end the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the wall and the associated régime, taking due account of the present Advisory Opinion.
