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Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon and cabinet ministers toured the seam line construction area of the separation fence last week. (AP)
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03/24
Jerusalem Post |
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03/23
New York Times |
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03/23
Haaretz |
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| By Ellis Shuman March 24, 2003 |
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The Defense Ministry will reportedly recommend to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to erect the so-called "separation fence" to the east of the large, central West Bank communities of Kedumim, Emmanuel and Ariel. The plan would place an additional 40,000 Jewish settlement residents, as well as 3,000 Palestinians, on the western, or Israeli side of the security barrier.
Defense Ministry spokeswoman Rachel Niedak-Ashkenazi confirmed the reports, published yesterday in Haaretz, but would not go into details.
"The raison d'etre of the fence is to protect Jewish Israeli settlements from security threats," she said. "If and when peace negotiations take place, the borders will be moved. The fence is only made of concrete and wire and can be brought down just like the Berlin Wall."
According to the initial plan, the security barrier was to be built roughly along the Green Line which marked the border between Israel and the West Bank prior to the 1967 Six Day War. Construction on the barrier, intended to keep Palestinian terrorists out of Israel proper, began last year but only small segments have been completed so far.
The fence has been criticized by both right-wing Israelis and Palestinians, who fear that it would serve as a political border between Israel and a future Palestinian state.
"We are against the whole idea of a partition," Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman (National Union) told Arutz 7. "[However,] what will determine whether a PA state will arise is not a fence, but rather whether the PA areas have territorial contiguity."
While originally opposing the fence's construction, the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip has become outspoken in efforts to determine the barrier's location and include as many Jewish settlements as possible on its western side.
Palestinian officials said the fence would undermine U.S. efforts to restart a peace process that would lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. "This is part of the ongoing Israeli effort to deepen its occupation," said Palestinian minister Nabil Shaath.
"This is a specific military measure to reduce as much as possible the possibility of Palestinian terrorist attacks," explained Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin. "This in no way implies it will be a future border."
Haaretz reported that construction is currently proceeding on two sections of the fence - from Mehola in the Beit Shean valley to Elkana near Rosh Ha'ayin. Other areas being planned have run into political problems, especially near the large number of settlements in the central West Bank and near Jerusalem.
Last week Sharon took cabinet members on a tour of the fence along the seam line. Sharon's government has reportedly agreed in principle to fence off the entire West Bank, including building a north-south fence in the Jordan Valley along Israel's border with Jordan. The fenced-off Palestinian enclaves would serve as the basis for the boundaries of a temporary Palestinian state, Haaretz reported.
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