For nearly 70 years, Palestinians have been protesting against the confiscation of their land and the fragmentation of their lives. One of the biggest symbols of this Israeli occupation has been the wall of separation, on which renewed work started this week. The wall was a done deal even before it started. Israel began building the barrier inside the occupied West Bank in 2002 at the height of the second Palestinian Intifada, saying it was crucial for security. In June 2004, the Israeli Supreme Court held that the wall was in itself legal but ordered some changes to the original route. The court ruled in April this year that the work must stop and told the government to consider alternative routes. But, in a new decision on July 6, the court said work could go ahead, ruling that the previous ban referred only to an area of a few hundred meters. In the process, Israel brushed aside international demands that the wall be brought down. The International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that construction of the barrier was illegal and, like the UN General Assembly, demanded that it be dismantled and that the confiscated land be returned. The Israeli government replied that it was disputed land, not Palestinian, and that the land's final status would be resolved in political negotiations. The Palestinian counter-argument, that if indeed the land is not Palestinian, it is certainly not Israeli, was unaddressed. One could ignore the relationship between Israeli actions, like the construction of the wall, and their motives. The logic and inspiration behind it and the people who are planning and executing it are hoping to ensure that Palestinians enclosed behind the wall do not pose a threat to the security of Israel. The wall is indeed protecting Israelis from Palestinian attacks which increased significantly during the second Intifada. The statistics say that between 2000 and July 2003, when the wall's first segment was completed, 73 suicide bombings were carried out from the West Bank. However, from August 2003 to the end of 2006, only 12 attacks were carried out. But Israel is using the wall to draw the contours of a Palestinian state. The wall is annexing Palestinian land under the guise of security by unilaterally establishing new borders. In some places its route substantially deviates eastward from the Green Line and severely restricts the travel of nearby Palestinians to and from work both in the West Bank and in Israel. When complete the wall will annex potentially 10 percent of Palestinian land in the West Bank and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem from the majority, in places separating farmers from their fields or villagers from water sources. That reality is coming soon; UN figures show that around two-thirds of the barrier is so far complete. The wall will extend 712 kilometers when finished, separating the West Bank from Israel, 85 percent of its length running through Palestinian land. It cuts far into the West Bank and encompasses Israel's largest settlement blocs containing hundreds of thousands of settlers. The wall was meant only to provide security, not to form a border. What it has become is a ghettoization project in all of its forms. It imprisons the Palestinian population and, in many places, isolates it from basic services. This, along with the loss of land, markets, and resources, results in the inability of communities to sustain themselves adequately and with dignity. The wall is a land grab aimed at stealing part of the Palestinians' future state. What is taking place is not aimed at establishing political or security boundaries between two sovereign entities. The West Bank is undergoing a process of racist cordoning-off. The Israeli wall carries no other meaning.
