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September 04, 2007
The Wall
This story is a perfect mixture of everything that is worthwhile and unsettling about Israel. The government has been building the separation wall right over Palestinian lands, in order to protect settlements, ensure buffers zones, and create facts on the ground which will help Israel retain more territory in an eventual settlement. One of the towns the Israelis built over was Bilin, where the fence, built on village land, separated the residents from their fields, orchards, and, thus, jobs.
The residents went to Court. And after years of protests and occasionally violent clashes with the Israeli military, the Supreme Court ruled in Bilin's favor, demanding that the military destroy the wall and find a new route. That decision showcases the best of Israel. That it had to be made showcases the worst. And that the Israelis would be so cavalier as to build over Palestinian lands in ways that create a larger, more disaffected, more resentful mass of unemployed Arab youths shows their short-sightedness.
Bleg: Can anyone find a decent map of the wall? All the ones I'm turning up are basically incomprehensible.
Update: Here's a great map of the wall, including a clear legend and notes on places where it violently intrudes on Palestinian autonomy.
September 4, 2007 | Permalink
Comments
This one looks pretty good, but it's a bit large.
This page, where I found the above map, has quite a few resources. Sorry if you already found this stuff.
Posted by: Stephen | Sep 4, 2007 1:19:30 PM
Yglesias linked to a Washington Post article from last month that was accompanied by some maps and graphics:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/06/AR2007080601661.html?hpid=topnews
Posted by: Haggai | Sep 4, 2007 1:28:41 PM
Kudos for calling it what Time is afraid to: a freaking WALL.
Although Time uses the term "barrier," the propaganda juggernaut demands some reference to "fence.
In light of your rhetorical bravery, our own minor transgression above is hereby forgiven. ;)
Posted by: Mimir | Sep 4, 2007 1:30:39 PM
So it should be called "a freaking WALL" even though it's 5% wall?
Posted by: Haggai | Sep 4, 2007 1:41:47 PM
So it should be called "a freaking WALL" even though it's 5% wall?
It should be called what it is where it is. So it's a "fence" in the desert, and a "wall" in the urban areas.
Where most people are - they see walls, not fences.
Posted by: Mimir | Sep 4, 2007 2:09:28 PM
I'm trying to figure out the difference in meaning or connotation between barrier and wall, or whether we have to be against just because we have to be against TIME magazine.
I actually thought the Israelis were calling it a wall since it was first planned...
Posted by: anon | Sep 4, 2007 2:22:23 PM
Various terms have been used interchangably. In Israel, it was usually referred to as "the fence." During the late 2002/early 2003 Israeli election campaign of Likud/Sharon vs. Labor/Mitzna, one joke making the rounds in political circles was that "the fence would win in a landslide," since it registered significantly higher approval from the public than either of the major candidates.
It should also be recalled that 35 years of occupation, settlements, etc. went by in the West Bank with no wall/fence/etc. Massive suicide bombing was what prompted it to be built, against the prevailing will among the right-wing and security establishments in Israel (it was originally an idea associated with the left, usually in tandem with unilateral withdrawal from settlements). Certainly the settlers detested the idea, since they feared that they would be the ones being cut off. Sharon OKed it only because it was too broadly popular with the electorate to resist any longer. It was only at that point that the settlers' influence kicked in and hijacked it (at least in part) to further their grip on various parts of the West Bank.
Posted by: Haggai | Sep 4, 2007 2:30:06 PM
Haggai, tell me then: what justified those 35 years of occupation?
Until you have a real answer to that, shut the fuck up. Your post is just one long excuse for why so many Israeli's refuse to see Palestinians as humans; when they even bother acknowledging that they exist.
Posted by: soullite | Sep 4, 2007 2:39:41 PM
Well, Ezra doesn't seem to think I should "shut the fuck up" about this, soullite (see above post). Sorry to burst your bubble.
And if you can't comprehend how anyone could have made the comment I did while simultaneously not being in favor of occupation and settlements, and certainly not considering the Palestinians to be sub-human, then I'm not the one who needs to learn a thing or two about this whole conflict.
Posted by: Haggai | Sep 4, 2007 2:47:54 PM
Soullite,
The occupation was initially (partially) justified by the countries from whom the territories were taken (Jordan, Egypt and Syria) refused to enter into extended peace negotiations so that any type of peace agreement whatsoever could achieved. And, Jordan's and Egypt's stated desires at the time were to keep those territories as integral parts of their states and not create any sort of independent Palestinian state.
Posted by: burritoboy | Sep 4, 2007 3:33:07 PM
The word 'wall' has been actively avoided in Israel. Two good reasons for this are the 'Berlin Wall' and the fence that surrounded the Warsaw Ghetto was called a 'wall'. Bad connotations here. It leads to one to identify the affected Palestinians to historical peoples who oppression and suffering remains unchallenged.
Posted by: syvanen | Sep 4, 2007 4:50:52 PM
Fence, wall, whatever. The Iron Curtain in eastern Europe was often a sandwich consisting of wire fence with barbed wire on the top, a strip of plowed land (to show footprints), a military-access-only road, another plowed strip, and another fence with barbed wire.
That Iron Curtain fence description fits a large portion of the Israeli-built 'fence' in the West Bank. In Berlin, the communists used an actual wall, as do the Israelis in their cities.
So, some kind of Israeli curtain is involved in their partition (and land grab). The Moslem curtain? The Zionist curtain? The Imperialist Israeli curtain? The Arab/Jew DMZ Curtain?
Where's the modern Ronnie Reagan to demand "Tear Down that Wall"? to the Israelis.
Posted by: JimPortlandOR | Sep 4, 2007 6:35:34 PM
Ezra:
Why did it take you so many years to report this?
Will you be following US/Israeli issues more critically in the future?
Maybe in 5 or 10 years, you'll start using the term "apartheid"
Poor Israel. Poor American Jews. I just hope it's not to late to start sowing something better because you do reap what you sow. And all Americans shouldn't bear the costs of the reaping hatred.
Posted by: anonymous | Sep 4, 2007 7:53:28 PM
Where's the modern Ronnie Reagan to demand "Tear Down that Wall"? to the Israelis
He's coming... he's coming. I think that's the fear Phil Roth was trying to head off at the pass in The Plot Against America.
Posted by: anonymous | Sep 4, 2007 7:54:34 PM
"Where's the modern Ronnie Reagan to demand "Tear Down that Wall"? to the Israelis."
When Israelis will start jumping the wall for a better life in Hamasland and Paleos will stop jumping the wall to kill Jewish children.
Posted by: mik | Sep 4, 2007 9:26:41 PM
"The occupation was initially (partially) justified by the countries from whom the territories were taken (Jordan, Egypt and Syria) refused to enter into extended peace negotiations so that any type of peace agreement whatsoever could achieved. And, Jordan's and Egypt's stated desires at the time were to keep those territories as integral parts of their states and not create any sort of independent Palestinian state."
Bboy, way too much logic and too many facts for this blog.
Give it up.
Posted by: mik | Sep 4, 2007 9:28:09 PM
"Haggai, tell me then: what justified those 35 years of occupation?"
I'm not Haggai, but I will try humbly:
Trying to keep your women and children alive?
Posted by: mik | Sep 4, 2007 9:30:55 PM
They may be trying, but I see no evidence whatsoever that the occupation is helping to keep their women and children alive:
http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2000/1/Terrorism+deaths+in+Israel+-+1920-1999.htm
You got any?
Posted by: Lewis Carroll | Sep 5, 2007 10:19:45 PM
Year 2000 and after:
http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Palestinian+terror+since+2000/Victims+of+Palestinian+Violence+and+Terrorism+sinc.htm
Posted by: Lewis Carroll | Sep 5, 2007 10:22:47 PM
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