catapult magazine

Good Fences Make Good Neighbours? (Or, Do Bad Neighbours Make Bad Fences?)[/b:5e243acfa8]

I’ve heard it compared to the Berlin wall (though it will eventually be 30 times as long, and twice as high), and I’ve heard it called an “apartheid wall.” The Israeli’s say it’s important for security. The Palestinians say it undermines the peace process and entrenches Israeli occupation and causes more destruction of Palestinian property (all houses and property within 35 metres of the wall will be razed). You can see from my sources on which side of the wall I stand.

[From Ha’aretz]
[i:5e243acfa8]"Israelis still use the convenient and misleading term “fence” to describe the system of fortifications that is currently being erected on Palestinian lands in the West Bank. Even “wall,” the term more commonly used in foreign-language reports, is insufficient to describe what is really being built at this very moment: A concrete wall eight meters high, wire fences and electronic sensors, ditches four meters deep on either side, a dirt path to reveal footprints, an area into which entry is forbidden, a two-lane road for army patrols, and watchtowers and firing posts every 200 meters along the entire length. These are the components of the “fence.”[/i:5e243acfa8]

[From Palestine Monitor]
[i:5e243acfa8]With the boundary between Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank being about 350km long, why does the route of the proposed wall come to 1000km? The answer lies in the route of the Wall. It is set to loop deep into Palestinian occupied territory, embracing clusters of illegal settlements, enclosing much fertile land and important subterranean water reservoirs . [/i:5e243acfa8]

The International Court of Justice ruled on Friday that Israel’s barrier in the West Bank should be torn down because it violates international laws and infringes on the rights of Palestinians.

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/07/09/israel_barrier040709

Here’s Netanyahu’s response to the ruling by the International Court of Justice:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/13/opinion/13NETA.html?hp

as long as neither side is willing to take any responsibility, i’m not sure even a fence that separates one from the other will help.

what do you all think of this idea of collective punishment—not only the wall but the related incursions, indiscriminate use of force against the palestinians and the land they’ve been living in for hundreds of years? is it appropriate and effective to punish a society at large for the people that blow themselves up? does it help end the root causes that drive those bombers to do so?