Avi — An outcome too terrible to imagine
Topic(s): Palestine / Israel | Comments Off on Avi — An outcome too terrible to imagineAn outcome too terrible to imagine
By Yigal Bronner
The morning after the horrific suicide bombing at
Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem, Finance Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu was asked on the radio whether
this was the right time to cut the defense budget.
Netanyahu reiterated his promise that the funds
earmarked for what is known as the separation
fence will not be reduced and will even be pumped
in faster to accelerate its construction. This
will be done in order to guarantee the security of
Israeli civilians. It never occurred to the radio
host to ask whether the fence would, indeed,
guarantee security. As in other areas, the
escalating violence and heated emotions rule out
any alternative views.
One of the most dramatic
geo-political changes in the
history of the region is taking
place at record speed and
without any public debate.
Before it becomes too late, we
must take time out to look
through the veil of lies about
the fence.
The first lie is in the title. The so-called
separation fence promises the worn-out and
worried public that the Palestinians, and all
the troubles that contact with them entails,
will be tucked safely behind the fence. We are
on one side, they are on the other, and that’s
that. The alignment of the fence will, in
reality, annex much of the West Bank to Israel.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will
still be living west of the fence, on the
Israeli side. Thousands of settlers will be
living east of it. Call it what you will –
separation it ain’t.
The second lie is that this fence marks a
border, and that the Palestinian State that
Sharon speaks of will be established east of
it. This is not one fence, but at least two
sets of walls. And while one of them, the
western one, will steal as much Palestinian
land as possible along the Green Line, the
other one, the eastern one, will be annexing
remote settlements. Several other obstacles,
including fences and ditches, will be created
between the two walls. This system will turn
the populated areas of the West Bank into
uncontiguous pens.
Take Jerusalem, for example. The wall that is
currently being built there is not on the line
separating the Palestinian neighborhoods from
the Jewish ones. Instead, it crosses through
all the Palestinian areas in town and will be
annexing more than 100,000 Palestinians to
Israel. Moreover, the hundreds of thousands who
will be left outside the wall will not only be
barred from entering the city, making their
living there, going to school and getting
medical care, but they will not be able to get
such services from cities to the east – since
from the east they will be surrounded by the
walls and roads that will be built around
Ma’aleh Adumim, Pisgat Zeev, Nokdim and Tekoa.
One can hardly imagine the scope of humanitarian
problems that these walls on the east side of
the Jerusalem metropolitan area will create as
they slash the region into an intricate system
of unconnected compounds. But the promise of
security that the fence carries with it turns
the Israeli ear deaf to any humanitarian
arguments.
And the third lie about the wall, again through
the Jerusalem prism: East Jerusalem was the
calmest Palestinian region during the current
intifada. The wall will divide families and
streets and leave us with many people who have
nothing to lose. This is a giant barrel of
explosives.
Of course this is true of other areas, as well.
And yes, there are places – a few – where the
fence will be built along the Green Line and
will not be annexing any Palestinian population
to Israel, as in the case of Tul Karm and
Qalqilyah. But anyone who believes that at
least there the fence will promise us quiet is
deluding themselves. Gaza is a fascinating case
study for this theory: it is so quiet there
that the Israel Defense Forces repeatedly asks
for permission to invade and the air force
bombs the region time and time again. There is
no need to elaborate on the extent of security
that the fence around Gaza has given the
residents of Sderot and Ashkelon.
By manipulating the genuine concerns of Israeli
civilians, Sharon’s cabinet is building a
system of fences that will not provide any
separation, will not create a border and will
not guarantee security, either. The purpose of
these walls is entirely different: they are
designed to make it impossible to weaken the
stronghold that Israel has gained in the
territories occupied in 1967. Eighteen months
from now, we will be awakening to an entirely
different reality. Ours will be a brutal land
of pens stretching between the Jordan River and
the Mediterranean that will make South African
apartheid pale. The outcome is too terrible to
even imagine.
Dr. Bronner teaches at the department of East
Asian studies of Tel Aviv University.