ISRAEL: BUILDING THE APARTHEID WALL

Tuesday March 11, 2003 19:28

by SomeoneoutthereWhere?don'tcare

Chaired by Christian Aid's Oisín Coghlan who will also introduce their recent report "Losing Ground: Israel, poverty and the Palestinians" Presentations include Apartheid Wall: Eyewitness Report Volunteering in Palestine at The Irish Film Centre, Eustace St, Dublin 2 (in the Upstairs Meeting Room) at 7.30pm on Thursday 13th March 2003

"ISRAEL: BUILDING THE APARTHEID WALL"

- All welcome -

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Facts about the Apartheid Wall

- Estimated to be 3 times as long and twice as high as the Berlin Wall (360km, imprisoning the whole of the West Bank)
- Will include electrical fences, trenches and security patrols
- Will not be built within its de-facto international borders. It will be built within the West Bank, upon seized privately owned Palestinian lands and shall annex approximately 10% of the West Bank to Israel
- Will annex some of Palestine's most fertile lands and water sources, including in Qalqilya: the Western Aquifer system, which provides 51% of the West Banks water resources as well as 14 water wells in the city - some 30% of the city's water resources
- The military orders and the construction of the wall violate basic principles of international human rights and humanitarian law
- In the one area where the Wall is already complete, unemployment has increased from 16% to 70%
- Land confiscation, destruction and severe restrictions of movement will result in loss of 6,500 jobs

Source: www.pengon.org

The Wall (also referred to as the fence; or security fence) which Israel is currently building in the northeast of the West Bank, as well as in the Bethlehem and Jerusalem areas, will not mark the 1967 border, also known as the Green Line. Rather, amidst some of the most fertile land in Palestine, this latest unilateral offensive will be a further exercise in Israel's annexation of lands, destruction of agriculture and property, and violation of human rights.

The construction and destruction revolving around the Apartheid Wall is to move full-force in the coming months and it could be completed in less than one year. The prospects of a completed wall are horrific, and will translate into the confiscation and annexation of some 10% of the West Bank, the destruction of hundreds of thousands of dunums of farmland including the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of trees, the demolition of homes, and the tragic 'advancement' of the closure and siege policy that will leave thousands of families landless, jobless, hungry, and hopeless.

For more information contact:
Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Tel: 01 - 6770253 Email: [email protected]