Illegal Wall and Settlements –“Build Bridges, Not Walls”
By Cynthia Brewer, Editor in Chief, HCEF Living Stones Newsletter
The Ninth Annual International HCEF Conference presentation on the Illegal Wall and Settlements was covered using DVD and PowerPoint presentations, maps, aerial photos, and graphs by two powerhouses that work towards peace between Israel and Palestine.
Professor Jad Isaac, the director general of the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem (ARIJ), and retired Ambassador Philip C. Wilcox Jr., the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, teamed up to talk about the geographic, economic and demographic impact of the illegal Israeli wall, settlements and checkpoints in the West Bank.
Using a PowerPoint presentation, Professor Isaac explained that it is most often during peace processes between Israel and Palestine that Palestine’s future crumbles from bad to worse. It seems that with each peace initiative, Palestine becomes smaller, more depressed, more strangulated, and put under more restrictions.
“Regarding the Road Map to Peace,” said Isaac, “there’s a need for a new driver.”
Professor Isaac gave descriptions of the past and current means of strangulation the Palestinian people and land have underwent, particularly since or during peace processes.
Peace was supposed to come with the Madrid talks, but after 16 years it hasn’t come to pass, he said.
“I recognize Israel within its 1967 borders. I’m accepting 22 percent of Palestine,” but peace was coming to us in pieces with the West Bank divided into Area A, B, and C, he continued.
Since the Oslo agreements in 1995, we’ve gone back to square one, said Isaac.
“The only two places with no Israeli presence are Gaza and Jericho, yet they’re surrounded. We’re back to square one. Meanwhile the settlements increase,” he said.
According to the Road Map, Israel was to withdraw from Palestinian areas occupied from Sept. 28, 2000, and the two sides restore the status quo that existed at that time.
Since then there has been a strangulation of Gaza with unbearable day-to-day living conditions within the Strip.
Currently, the West Bank is dotted with hundreds of road blocks: checkpoints – 68; flying checkpoints – 9; road blocks, 44; earth mounds – 249; road gates – 64; observation towers – 48; tunnels – 25; agriculture gates – 70: a total of 576 road blocks. According to the Road Map, these 576 roadblocks were to be removed.
The de-Palestinization of Jerusalem has continued since the war of 1967. Immediately following the war, Israel unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem with parts of the West Bank, expanding the borders of East Jerusalem from 6.5 square kilometers to 71 square kilometers, to include areas from Ramallah to Bethlehem.
Since the barrier wall, 60,000 of the 254,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites have been cut off from Jerusalem – separated by the wall, causing the Palestinian Jerusalemite population to decrease to 20.2. The new philosophy seems to be: “What is mine is mine, what is yours is ours.”
Population density for Palestinians in East Jerusalem is 11,000 persons per square kilometer, whereas the population density for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem is 5,000 per square kilometers.
Israeli settlements have doubled since 1993 with 500,000 settlers in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and ten percent of Israeli Jews are settlers.
Most of the growth of settlements was when Israel was in a peace process. The withdrawal of Israelis from the Gaza Strip in 2005 increased settlers in the West Bank, just as the population of the Sinai settlers in 1979 moved to the West Bank.
Speaking of the Jewish Settlers, “They’re a very strong force that can’t be ignored,” Isaac said.
Regarding the Separation Wall, which is to be 770 kilometers long once it’s complete, it takes 12.5 percent of the western part of the West Bank.
Ninety thousand Palestinians live in 60 different communities in the same zone, but only 18 percent of them are allowed to move from where they are to the rest of the West Bank. Eighty-two percent of the residents are confined.
Where are we going?
With the wall, Israel controls 87% of Bethlehem land and for the first time in history Jerusalem and Bethlehem have been segregated. The Israeli settlement master plan outcome includes two states side by side, but one inside the other, Isaac said.
Isaac explained his reasons the peace plan was derailed beginning with the fact that only free persons can negotiate and continued with the fact that there was an extended interim period with no end game; there was a deferment of “Hot Issues,” no final status negotiation dates; accelerated expansion of settlements and outposts; unilateralism replaced negotiations; weak U.N. and international community; absence of arbitration mechanism; complacency of the United States; Palestinians did not feel the dividends of peace, and the continued violence.
He continued to say that no Israeli leader has ever expressed a readiness to withdraw to the pre 1967 borders.
He rounded out his talk with how he sees Israel and Palestine can get on the right track. Most importantly he believes that durable peace talks must be comprehensive and include Syria and Lebanon. We don’t need interim agreements and there must be a stop to all settlements, he continued
“If we know we’re going to have a two state solution, then why not recommend an immediate freeze on settlements and cancel restrictions of movement?” he asked.
They need to release all prisoners, he continued – even if they have blood on their hands, for “the IDF has more blood on its hands than all Palestinian prisoners.
He finalized his remarks stating, “We need a marriage counselor. We need the U.N. to monitor. The U.S. hasn’t handled it well.”
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In speaking about the likelihood of peace and reconciliation between Israel and Palestine with all that separates them, Ambassador Philip C. Wilcox Jr., opened his talk saying there was a ray of hope for peace since President George W. Bush has decided to hold a conference to finally restore a genuine peace between Israel and Palestine – after seven years of passive attention.
He said there are some real obstacles though, for it was left to the two Israeli and Palestinian leaders to come up with a declaration of principles.
“It’s hard to imagine these two leaders can do this with their political pressures,” he said.
With that, Ambassador Wilcox laid out the facts and obstacles that separate Palestine from a viable state.
The main “facts on the ground,” all of which are illegal according to United Nations’ resolutions, are the Separation Barrier, settlements and Israel’s system of roadblocks and Israeli-use only highways throughout the Occupied Territories.
Separation Wall
The building of the Separation Barrier, or “The Wall,” has created enclaves separating towns from one another, Wilcox said. “This is a catastrophe – it’s not a recipe for peace but an eternal recipe for conflict!” he continued.
The green line - the original 1967 border - is less than 300 kilometers in length; however, the walls projected length upon completion is 700 kilometers.
The extra 400 kilometers has been used to encircle towns and creep deeper into Palestinian territory.
“It’s a land grab,” said Wilcox.
In Beit Jala, the wall took all lands that would have become future lands for Palestinian’s next generation. The wall has grabbed monastery vineyards, Rachel’s Tomb, and farms and orchards.
If the wall were only for security it would have been built on the green line; instead it cuts deep into Palestinian lands.
“If the wall is back on the ‘67 borders, Palestinians will help build it,” said Wilcox. “Rather, it’s a land grab.”
Nations have tried to build walls. It will only increase insecurity, he said. The wall did initially help against terrorism, Wilcox said, but its other motive – to redefine borders and control water sources – will only lead to insecurity.
Settlements
Ambassador Wilcox showed how the “thickening” of settlements has helped to enclose Jerusalem and leave only fragments of land to Palestinians for a future state.
The process of colonizing the Occupied Territories began and continues. “Settlements doubled from 100,000 settlers to 200,000 in Oslo peace time,” he said.
In 1967 it was said that to occupy Palestinian Lands with Jews would be fatal; it would transform Israel into a colonial nation. That element lost the debate, Wilcox said, while the military and messianic Jews prevailed.
Matrix of Control
Of the matrix of roadblocks and Israeli-only roads within Palestinian Territory, he said it is totally incompatible with the two-state solution.
Some say the two-state solution can’t work with the “facts on the ground.”
“I say it must!” Wilcox declared.
However, there are plenty of reasons for skepticism of the future peace talks, Wilcox said.
He doubted that Olmert and Abbas could come up with a declaration of principles.
“The U.S. has to (come up with the principles),” he said. “That’s why the U.S. should restore diplomatics, otherwise it’s not going to happen.”
The lack of diplomatic efforts on the United States’ part has been seen in many conflicts throughout the Middle East. Unfortunately we have abandoned the use of international law, Wilcox said.
“The United States has been too differential to Israel; too many times the U.S. felt it was supposed to be Israel’s lawyer rather than the middleman,” he said.
“The practice of the U.S. Administration is foreign to U.S. values. It didn’t wait for a U.N. Resolution in Iraq, and it made a mess.
“It’s a burden for the United States to play the role, but I don’t think the United Nations can do it; only the U.S. can do it and it’s not too late to do,” he emphasized.
The hopeful sign is that “the people in Palestine and Israel desperately want peace,” he said. They know there will be blood violence unless there are two states.
Wilcox said that their (Israelis’ and Palestinians’) leaders have not caught up to public opinion. This must be addressed not just in closed rooms, but we need to reach the people, he said.
We need to mobilize to rescue Israelis and Palestinians.
Prof. Jad Isaac is the Director General of the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem (ARIJ). This institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to promote applied research, technology transfer and sustainable development in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and encourages the self-reliance of its people through greater control of their natural resources.
Ambassador Philip C. Wilcox Jr. (Ret.) is the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, a Washington DC based foundation devoted to fostering peace between Israelis and Palestinians. He is retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 1997 after 31 years of service.
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