Fears mount as Israel's 'Berlin Wall' threatens to imprison the West Bank

[Resistance]

http://www.sundayherald.com/30424

It is eight metres high and up to 220 miles long and, say Palestinians, it is part of a blatant plan to seize their assets and force them off their land.

It makes the Berlin Wall look like the work of amateurs. Israel is building a barricade in and around the occupied Palestinian West Bank which will be four times the size of communist Germany's claim to fame Ð and light years ahead of it technologically.

It's difficult to say exactly how long the finished wall will be as Israel has not released complete maps. Israeli and Palestinian human rights organisations have had to deduce its path using military orders for land seizures and lists of which illegal Israeli settlements will be to the west of the wall. Their conclusion is that it will run the entire 220-mile length of the West Bank and could even encircle it and be built not just on the border between the West Bank and Israel, but on the border between the West Bank and Jordan as well, effectively making the West Bank a huge open-air prison .

It took nearly three decades for the Berlin Wall to come down. Palestinians are afraid that if their wall is up for that long its impact will force them to leave their homes. Israel will call this voluntary transfer, implying Palestinians wanted to leave when in reality they had no option. When the wall finally comes down, they say, it will not be to reunite people and land it will be because the land east of it is now free of its native inhabitants and ready to be completely taken over by Israel.

[GabysPoppy]

1. Once again

The inclusion of any reference to the Berlin Wall is just meant to be inflammatory by the author. It bears no similarities to the Peace Fence.

I will state again:

The Berlin wall was intended to prevent East Germans to flee their repressive country to seek freedom in Wet Germany.

The Peace Fence is intended to prevent terrorists from infiltrating into Israel to cause death and terror.

[Resistance]

2. It's funny

you say the Berlin Wall is intended to be an inflammatory statement, then you call the Apartheid Wall a "Peace Fence". :crazy:

[Muddleoftheroad]

5. It is a fence, it brings peace

Ergo, Peace Fence.

[bpilgrim]

33. oh, look! a fence... bearing, PEACE

:crazy:

peace

[corporatewhore]

3. is the peace fence which is gonna be 6xbigger than the berlin fence the

one your talking about

[Muddleoftheroad]

6. No nation has ever suffered this kind of ongoing terrorism

So Israel has to do something both smart and humane. Would you prefer Israel do something more military?

[Darranar]

9. How is the Land Grab Wall humane?

[stopthegop]

10. by keeping people from

coming across and killing other people, intentionally targetting civilians. (an act of stunning courage)

[Darranar]

12. And at the same time...

destroying farmland, slowing access to wells and fields, stealing land, and making life even more difficult for the Palestinians.

The murder of every Palestinian would stop Palestinian terrorism, too.

[stopthegop]

14. that would require Isreal to adopt the PA policy..

kill all of the other side...they're better than the PA...but everyone knows that

[bluesoul]

15. Yeah

everyone oookkkk

[Resistance]

16. actually

the Israeli military is worse than it's Palestinian extremist counterparts: for they have murdered many more civilians and destroyed hundreds of homes as well as still stealing land.

[newyorican]

39. Not really worse...

just more successful.

[Darranar]

18. The issue is the Land Grab Wall, not PA policy....

if anything that will stop or reduce Palestinian terrorism is humane, how is the murder of every palestinian humane?

[stopthegop]

19. who said :

anything that will stop or reduce Palestinian terrorism is humane,

not me...there are any number of things that would stop the Palestinian terrorism but be wrong in themselves...this fence is just not one of them

on edit: if the wall surrounds the West Bank, cutting it off from Jordan, my opinion would change...the wall would then be a prison

[Darranar]

20. How not?

[stopthegop]

21. I'm sorry...how not what? n/t

.

[Darranar]

22. Here...

this fence is just not one of them

[stopthegop]

23. oh...got it..

I don't believe it's inhumane to keep people out a certain geographic area...a nation has a right to restrict who comes in...(restricting who exits would be different)...if the fence keeps Palestinians from crossing into Isreal, but does not keep them from entering Jordan, I have no problem with it...

to say people from the West Bank have a 'right' to enter Isreal seems to imply the West Bank is part of Isreal...and most people don't agree with that

[drdon326]

24. Jordan...

has closed its border to palestinians last i heard.

Cant imagine why... especially after that lovefest called
Black September.

[Muddleoftheroad]

26. Black September

Didn't you get the memo? Nobody is supposed to mention Black September because ARABS killed so many Palestinians. It's only news when Jews do anything.

And even the Black September deaths are no doubt blamed on Israel by many at this point.

[Darranar]

29. But the wall isn't being built on Israel's land...

since the West Bank is NOT part of Israel, what right does israel have to restrict access to certain areas in the West Bank?

[Resistance]

38. exactly

they have no right at all.

[Muddleoftheroad]

11. What do you mean?

I thought we were discussing the Peace Fence,

[Darranar]

13. What Peace Fence?

[drdon326]

17. What land grab??

:shrug:

[the_boxer_]

44. You are correct, Muddle....no "nation" has endured that type of

"ongoing terrorism." So when will the Palestinian "nation" be free of Israel's 55+ year land grab and "terrorist" activity?

[mmm]

4. It is far more insidious than the Berlin wall

this wall is the visible manifestation of pure evil.
The free world should stop this at all costs. Now.

[stopthegop]

7. that statement is beyond silly...

GabysPoppy has it right...Berlin Wall kept people in slavery...this wall/fence is designed to keep people from blowing up school kids...see the difference?

[Muddleoftheroad]

8. The free world

If it gets involved at all, should help stop the Palestinian terror since their leadership seems unwilling to do so.

[lotteandollie]

32. The free world will do nothing.

The fence is a good idea, I would have lost my cool long ago, if I were an Israeli. It shows restraint. I do not approve of the Jewish settlements however. Why build in an area you are going to give up?

[Cassandra]

40. Interesting that you think you know...

what pure evil looks like and will now tell us. Strange how the work of suicide/homicide bombers has never compelled you to make a similar statement about them.

[GabysPoppy]

41. Did you expect that to happen?

:crazy:

[brainshrub]

30. I think the official reason the Berlin Wall was made

was to keep Capitalist saboteurs out of East Germany, so they would not damage the great communist experiment. (Read: Keep terrorists out.)

Thinking people know the real reason the Berlin Wall was built, thinking people know why the Apartheid Wall is being built.

[GabysPoppy]

31. I don't propose to be an expert but you might want to read this

In 1961 the East German government decided to stop this flight to the West, which was depleting the country's labor force, among other things. During the night of August 13, 1961, East German soldiers and members of its militia surrounded West Berlin with temporary fortifications that were rapidly replaced by a concrete wall, 4 m (12 ft) high and 166 km (103 mi) long, of which 45 km (28 mi) lay between two sides of the city. Where a wall was not possible, buildings were bricked-up. The only openings in the wall were two closely guarded crossing points. Although the GDR announced that the wall was needed to prevent military aggression and political interference from West Germany, the East German government built tank traps and ditches along the eastern side of the wall, suggesting that it was constructed to keep East German citizens in.

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761580628/Berlin_Wall.html

[JasonDeter]

36. To the Israeli's its a peace fence.

To the homicide bombers its like, "Dude, where'd that come from?"

[La_Serpiente]

25. Not to mention

that I have seen pictures of Arabs building the wall. A culture dies when the conflict becomes internalized.

[GabysPoppy]

27. Here's a wild guess

Maybe the Israeli Arabs don't want Palestinian terrorists either?

Let's not forget many Israeli Arabs have been blown up also.

[Resistance]

28. Persons wanting terrorists are rare

Also rare are persons wanting their land blatantly stolen and kicked out of their homes, like what Israel does with it's version of the Berlin Wall.

[Jim Sagle]

34. Except that it's the OPPOSITE of a Berlin wall, as already explained.

[Resistance]

42. ?

Are you now saying that Israel's Berlin Wall doesn't steal land?

:crazy:

[Cassandra]

43. Israel does not have a Berlin wall

or an Apartheid Wall. It has a Peace Wall. Or an Anti-Terror Wall.

[IndianaGreen]

35. Meanwhile, in the American Left...

The point of view that seems to be taking hold now is that the US should pull out of the Middle East, cutoff all aid to Israel, and that there should be a one-state solution to the I/P conflict.

I personally think that a one-state solution is impractical preferring instead a "divide and quit" scheme, essentially a UN repartitioning of the land and population transfer such as the one used to partition India. These are two people cannot live together or side-by-side. They should each have their own bloody state, but they should be kept apart by a DMZ like the one we have in Korea.

The one-state solution is gaining momentum simply because is one course of action available under international law. Israel can either withdraw back to its pre-1967 borders, or it can formally annex the entire West Bank and Gaza, and grant full Israeli citizenship to Palestinians.

[Lurking Dem]

37. All that would do

is make the war a civil one.

[the_boxer_]

45. As opposed to a colonial one.