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In the West Bank town of Qalqiliya the wall encircles the city. It is eight
meters high. It has watchtowers every half kilometer, where
snipers are positioned and can look down into the city. The
sole entrance and exit is a military check- point. At some points
the wall stretches more than six kilometers beyond the 1967
Green Line* and has isolated and destroyed over 12,000 acres
of the Qalqiliya district’s land. It has also enabled
the Israeli government to illegally annex six settlements in
the region. (*The pre-1967 Israeli border, before the occupation
of Gaza and the West Bank.)
Residents of Qalqiliya talk of an “internal closure”
on their spirits. Family and social relations are being severed
by the wall. The families inside the city are under extreme
stress: the economic situation makes it hard to provide the
basic necessities for children. One resident: “While people
can be killed in prison, life is more difficult here. In prison
I know my role, so I make my life according to this. But here
we don’t know what they [Israeli Military] are going to
do. We do not know what to expect. This is very hard for the
child- ren who do not know how to behave, react, or deal with
the situation . . . it is unknown what the future is, how do
I adjust to this sort of prison? I can learn the program but
the children cannot.”
The wall takes different forms: an eight-meter-high concrete
wall in Qalqiliya, while in other areas it is a series of fences,
some electrified, and includes trenches, roads, barbed wire,
cameras, trace paths for foot- prints, and buffer zones. The
Israeli government continues to keep the wall’s projected
route secret. Maps available today are based on Israeli military
confiscation orders that farmers received and which were accompanied
by small maps of their communities.
U.S. Response
In August there were reports that the administration was considering
financial pressure to convince Israel to halt construction of
the wall being built on Palestinian land. The New York Times
(8/5/03, A3) reported that U.S. officials were considering reducing
the loan guarantees approved by Congress last spring by the
amount Israel spends on building the wall on land beyond the
1967 Green Line.
In an August interview, Secretary of State Colin Powell said,
“A nation is authorized and it is within its rights to
put up a fence, as it sees the need for one. But in the case
of the Israeli fence, we are concerned when the fence crosses
over onto the land of others, and if it is constructed in a
way that makes it more difficult to move forward on the road
map, this causes us a problem.”
In response to the administration’s efforts to pressure
Israel on the wall, 30 House members signed a letter drafted
by Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), that “the U.S. must never pressure
Israel to take a position or action which would jeopardize the
security of its citizens.” And, a new Senate letter, dated
August 21, is being circulated by Senators Bayh (R-IN) and Specter
(R-PA) objecting to possible plans to reduce loan guarantees
to reflect Israeli spending on what the letter terms Israel’s
“non-permanent security perimeter.”
During the August recess more than 60 members of Congress
participated in AIPAC (American Israeli Political Action Committee)
-affiliated trips to Israel. Many who participated now view
the wall as “necessary” and a “good thing”
for Israel’s security. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who
was in one of those delegations, said that, “Many in Congress
feel the fence is an important contributor to preventing acts
of terror” and that the wall’s route should absolutely
not be linked to loan guarantees.
What You Can Do
The leaders of the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem have issued
a statement pleading to all peace-loving people around the world
to help remove the wall, which they call an impediment to peace.
Call your Members of Congress and the White House comment line
— (202) 456-1111 — stating your concern about
the wall, its impact on the daily lives of the Palestinians,
and the barrier it is placing in front of a just and lasting
peace. |
