Friends, this brief op-ed is more formal than I usually write, in an effort to clarify to a wider audience what is actually wrong with the so-called 'security fence'. Please feel free to circulate further. Gila
_________________________________________
Thank
You, Your Honors
Gila Svirsky
In a carefully reasoned but unequivocal
decision, the International Court of Justice in the Hague did the
expected: It found that Israel's construction of its security wall inside
Palestinian territory is illegal according to international law.
As an
Israeli deeply concerned about the security of my country, and a Jew deeply
concerned about the moral implications of building this barrier, I applaud this
decision.
Israel's security claims in favor of the wall are seriously
flawed: As it is now being constructed, the wall does not follow the 1967
border, but rather reaches deep into Palestinian land, a route that will
ultimately leave hundreds of thousands of Palestinians on the Israeli
side. How will this prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from entering
Israel?
On humanitarian grounds, the wall is unconscionable. It
prevents Palestinian access to farmland, schools, hospitals and jobs.
Picture your children having to wait at the wall twice a day for soldiers to
show up and unlock the gate, allowing them to get to and from school.
Picture the farmer who made a living from his olive trees, which are now
inaccessible or have been felled to make way for construction. Imagine
that you suddenly need to see a doctor, but have no permit to get through.
Imagine that you simply want to visit your elderly mother, but the wall now
comes between you. According to B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights
organization, when the wall is complete, some 38% of Palestinians will find
their lives disrupted and their livelihoods discontinued.
The presence of
the wall is not only cruel to Palestinians; it will ultimately harm Israeli
security as well, as it intensifies the bitterness and hatred directed toward
us. Is this the security that the wall will provide?
Unlike
Palestinians who can hardly avoid it, most Israelis have never even seen the
wall; it is built inside Palestinian territory, where only Israeli settlers (and
the soldiers sent to protect them) now venture. If other Israelis saw it,
I hope they would be shocked. In several places, the wall does not simply
wend through Palestinian towns, it actually surrounds them entirely, penning the
residents inside - their right to enter or leave left to the whim of young
soldiers guarding the gate.
In these localities, civilian populations are
now entirely encircled by a 30-foot-high, gray concrete battlement interrupted
only by watchtowers from where soldiers train binoculars and automatic rifles on
the residents below. Lights mounted on the wall shine down into the
streets, making constant surveillance that much easier. As a Jew whose
ancestors were confined to ghettoes during anti-Semitic periods of history, I
find this horrifying. Will keeping 100,000 Palestinians penned in ghettoes
and enclaves serve the security needs of Israel? Did forcing Jews into the
ghettoes of Europe serve the security needs of those countries?
Last
week, the Israeli Supreme Court acknowledged the grave violations of Palestinian
human rights resulting from the wall, and ordered the army to reroute it in
specific locations. While our government is hoping that this Israeli court
ruling will make it possible for Israel to ignore the Hague tribunal - on the
grounds that "the wall is an internal security matter that we are dealing with"
- most Israeli peace activists do not agree. Construction of the wall
within Occupied Territory - meaning on somebody else's property - is a violation
of basic rights, no matter how you look at it. And claims that the wall
provides security are undercut by the large numbers of Palestinians who will
remain on the "Israeli" side.
Ultimately, the best way for my country to
achieve security is to negotiate peace with the Palestinians, and sufficiently
improve the lives on both sides so that there is a vested interest in
maintaining the peace. The wall, however, does just the opposite. As
a result, it is not only bad for Palestine, but bad for Israel too.
A few
days ago, I watched an old Palestinian woman surveying with dismay her family's
olive trees that the army had cut down, shaving a swath on which the wall will
rise. "Those stupid people," she said, careful not to name them, "If not
for their stupidity, we could have lived in peace with each
other."
____________________
Gila Svirsky is a peace and human rights
activist in Jerusalem.
_______________________________
Coalition of
Women for Peace:
http://www.coalitionofwomen4peace.org
For more information on Gila Svirsky see an article about her from the BBC
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