Sharon's Wall
By Michael S. Ladah
November 1, 2002
Many of the
atrocities that are being committed by Israel in the West Bank and Gaza against the
Palestinian population have had little coverage by news media around the world. Similar to the cover up that the Israeli government
and its military attempted in the aftermath of the Jenin atrocities, the Israeli Ministry
of Defense and the Israeli Defense Force are doing their best to cover up, and divert
attention from, major crimes in the making. One
of these crimes has been in progress for a while with little attention from the world.
The Israeli government, with the expressed
approval of Ariel Sharon, has prepared a plan to build a wall to encircle the western
perimeter of the West Bank and separate it completely from Israel, in the same style as
the infamous Berlin Wall. The government has
not published the details of the plan and considers it a “secret” including the
specifications of the wall and its location with respect to the Green Line, the 1967 line
of demarcation. While the plan seems to be
more advanced in the northern part of the West Bank (the first phase), land confiscation
has been in progress along the entire length of the planned wall. The confiscation of Baron Der, a church property
north of Bethlehem, has been the most visible example of property confiscation in
preparation for construction of the wall.
Baron Der is Armenian Church property
located in the northern outskirts of Bethlehem. The
50 acre property was bought in 1641 by Grigor Baron Der (1560-1645), the Armenian
Patriarch of Jerusalem. Over the past five
centuries, Baron Der has served as an Armenian Apostolic administrative center, a location
for religious retreats, a religious training center, an income producing orchard and an
archaeological site. The property contains a
monastic building that has served as a residence for Armenian monks who officiate in the
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Armenian
monks from Jerusalem also use Baron Der for their annual retreat
and for spiritual training. The land holds
great meaning for the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Armenian Apostolic
Catholicosate in Etchmiadzin, His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of all Armenians, His
Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, Armenian Palestinians and
Armenians throughout the world. The
confiscation of Baron Der has very special significance to all Palestinians, Christians
and Moslems, and symbolizes the repression that the Israeli government has been practicing
on all Palestinians including all minorities within them.
For over a year, the Israeli army has
occupied the Armenian property of Baron Der, citing Israeli security as its justification. In April of 2002, without the knowledge or consent
of the Armenian Patriarchate, the Israeli Army paved a military road through Baron Der. The road is approximately 1000 meters long and 50
meters wide. When paving the road, the IDF
destroyed tombs and antiquities on the property, uprooted many of the olive trees that had
been on the property for centuries and rendered the property essentially unusable. At that time, an Israeli military commander and
representative of the Israeli Army stated that the road would be for temporary use only. He further “reassured” the Armenian
Patriarchate that the Israeli Army would restore the area to its original state once the
situation in the region settled.
In recent weeks, the Israeli government has
escalated its violations against the Armenian Church by announcing its intention to
convert the road into a permanent security wall. The
wall would effectively divide the property into two useless plots. The Israeli Ministry of Defense has stated that the
security wall is intended to be a separation wall between the West Bank and Israel, but the Israeli authorities have offered no
satisfactory explanation why the wall can not be built around the property. The good-faith efforts of the Armenian Patriarchate
to reach a negotiated settlement with the Israeli authorities have either been ignored or
have met with responses that have been totally unsatisfactory. As of this time, the seizure of the property
continues, and Israeli plans to divide the property with a permanent wall are moving
forward. Apparently this had always been the
intention of the Israeli government and their discussions with the Armenian Church had
been nothing more than the usual deception practiced by the Israeli government regarding
everything they have done and continue to do in the West Bank and Gaza.
The impact of the separation wall on the
entire West Bank will be the same as its impact on Baron Der. It will divide properties, separate them
permanently from their owners, separate entire Palestinian communities from the rest of
the Palestinian population in the West
Bank and make travel for
Palestinians on the eastern side of the wall even more difficult than it is today. The exact location of the wall may be a
“secret,” but the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has been able
to piece the route that the wall will follow in the northern part of the West Bank (the
first phase). B’Tselem’s information
is based on what little has been published in the Israeli media about the wall, on actual
confiscation of Arab land by the IDF in the name of “security,” and on contacts with various Israeli government
agencies. B’Tselem has published a position paper on the infamous wall, a map showing where the
wall is expected to be built in the northern West Bank and the specification of the wall. B’Tselem’s paper outlines the devastation
that the wall will have on the Palestinian population.
According to B’Tselem, the location of Sharon’s Wall, the Israeli Berlin Wall, will be
up to several kilometers inside the West Bank (east of the 1967 border). B’Tselem’s map traces the route of the
wall and shows the Palestinian communities that will end up on the west (Israeli) side of
the wall once it is built and, therefore isolated from the rest of the West Bank
Palestinians (Click here for map). Palestinians on
either side of the wall will be denied access to their farms, orchards and their places of
work on the opposite sides of the wall. Whether
the communities isolated on the west side will be allowed to stay on the Israeli side is
not known at this time but many of us can guess that the IDF will find an ingenious way to
evict the population to the east side of the wall and confiscate their land for Israeli
settlers, again in the name of security. The
wall will also cut off some of the Palestinian roads and in some cases will cause what is
today a 10 minute car journey to take hours especially that the new journey will cross one
or more additional Israeli checkpoints.
The wall, which is really an elaborate
separation barrier “system” will consist of a “smart” fence in
the center with a barrier (trench) against vehicles to the east of the wall and another
fence to the east of the trench for delay purposes. The
average width of the barrier ranges from 50 to 70 meters and may reach up to 100 meters in
some locations. Depth barriers may also be
added in areas where the wall may come “too close” to the Green Line. It should be expected that an additional buffer
zone east of the wall will be declared a military zone off-limits to the Palestinian
population.
While
this wall is defended by the Israeli government as necessary for security, it is obviously
intended to give Israel the excuse to grab more Palestinian land from any potential
Palestinian state. Imagine 10 to 15 kilometers
taken away from the perimeter of the West Bank bordering Israel; even if one
conservatively assumes an average of 5 kilometers will be lost to the west of the wall
(let alone the buffer zone on the east side) along the West Bank border with Israel, that
will constitute a loss close to 28 percent of the current land mass of the West Bank. As with its other actions since 1967, Israel is
again attempting to change the facts on the ground to influence the outcome of future
negotiations and continue its efforts to make life ever more miserable for the Palestinian
population with the hope that they may simply give up and leave.
The
saddest part about this wall is that it is being planned and built illegally, in violation
of international law. Israel is building their
Sharon Wall in violation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, in violation of several UN
Security Council resolutions prohibiting Israel from such actions, and under the nose of
the international community including the United Nations and the “honest peace
broker,” the United States. No one so far
has lifted a finger to oppose this yet another crime against the people of Palestine. As far as our free press is concerned, this
development must not really be news worthy of printing, and as far as our president is
concerned, Sharon is a man of peace.
Notes:
B’Tselem’s position paper is available on their web site http://www.btselem.org
B’Tselem’s map of the northern West Bank showing the route of the security wall is
available on their web site http://www.btselem.org
Map of the West Bank showing the location of Israeli check-points
is available on http://www.palestinemonitor.org/maps/westbank_checkpoints.htm
Other maps of interest regarding the occupied West Bank and Gaza may be found on http://www.palestinemonitor.org/maps/maps.html
© 2002 by
Michael S. Ladah. The writer is an Arab
American who lived and worked in various parts of the Middle East. He is
the author of “Quicksand, Oil and Dreams: The Story of One of Five Million
Dispossessed Palestinians.” He may be reached at mikeladah@hotmail.com
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