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A crew supervisor watches as construction crews prepare the ground for a security fence being built between Israel and the West Bank. (AP)
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06/30
Haaretz |
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Jerusalem Post |
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| By Debbie Berman June 30, 2003 |
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U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice criticized on Sunday the construction of a security fence separating Israel and the West Bank, claiming that the fence was unilaterally setting a political border. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon responded by saying that despite U.S. disapproval, Israel would not back down when it came to ensuring the safety of its citizens.
Rice told the cabinet ministers at a meeting yesterday in Jerusalem that the Bush administration viewed the fence as "problematic" because it would give the impression that international borders between Israel and the Palestinian Authority had been set, without going through proper diplomatic negotiation channels.
Construction of the fence has also been criticized by the UN Human Rights Commission, which stated that setting the fence's course was comparable to Israeli annexation of seven per cent of West Bank territories.
"We are under the impression that even if you did not intend to, you have set down circumstances that can unilaterally change the border that is meant to be agreed on through negotiations with the Palestinians," Rice said.
"The fence is likely to complicate the situation in the future. On this issue there is a difference of opinion between us. While you say that it is a security fence, the Palestinians see it as a political statement which angers them - and even if your intentions are not political, they certainly seem political," Rice added.
In response Sharon told Rice that the fence was not an attempt to draw up permanent borders but was being built as a deterrent to ongoing Palestinian terrorist infiltration into Israel. Sharon emphatically told Rice, "Don't pressure us on security issues, because we have nowhere to go." Even so, Sharon did agree to Rice's request to reconsider the route of the fence.
"In addition to being proactive we also have a need to operate defensively, and that is why we are building the fence," said Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. "250 Palestinian suicide bombers have entered Israel from the West Bank, but not one from Gaza. Building the fence is not a political move, it is a security move," he said.
Minister of Industry and Trade Ehud Olmert asked Rice, "You don't agree to liquidations, you don't agree to a security fence. So exactly how is it that you want us to fight terror? You would use the same tactics. So don't be inflexible on these issues because we can't concede."
Shinui Ministers Yosef Lapid and Avraham Poraz also voiced their support of the fence, claiming that most Israelis do not view it as the basis for setting borders. "The fence is not the future border, but rather security for the present," Lapid said.
Sharon ended the debate by stating that Israel would continue all efforts to protect its citizens, even in situations where the U.S. disagreed with its actions. "In choosing between Israeli victims and daily funerals and potential problems to be caused by the construction of the fence, I choose the problems with fence, which can be dealt with through negotiations. If the funerals continue, the negotiations will lead to nowhere. On the subject of Israeli security, there will be no compromises or concessions - even if there are difference of opinion with the U.S." Sharon said.
Israel began building the security fence, which will eventually be nearly 370 miles long, a year ago in an attempt to thwart continued terrorist crossings from the West Bank into Israel. The first segment of the fence - some twenty miles of fences, barriers and patrol roads - is due to be turned over to the Israel Defense Forces next month and will prevent terrorist infiltrations from the Jenin area.
Although originally planned to roughly follow the Green Line, which marked the border between Israel and the West Bank prior to the 1967 Six Day War, political considerations have moved the fence further to the east to encompass additional Jewish settlements at the expense of Palestinian farmlands.
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