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Israel
continues to build walls and fences, analysts say the country’s isolationist
policies and unwillingness to deal with the Palestinians and other Arab
neighbors through anything other than forceful means spells disaster.
"On
the one hand, we’re walling the Palestinians in but, on the other hand, if you
kind of zoom out and look at the Middle East, you’ll see that Israel is the one
that’s walled in. It’s this island that is losing touch with its
neighbors," said Israeli academic and author Neve Gordon. Israel’s
eight-meter high wall in the West Bank is now in its tenth year of
construction. As of April 2012, 434 kilometers, or almost 62 percent of the
total length of the wall, had been completed.
In
June, Israel announced that construction would resume on a section of the wall
in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem. Building of the section
around Maale Adumim, one of the largest Israeli settlements in the West Bank,
is expected to start next year.
"Whatever
is on the other side of the wall is a monster, is an unknown, is something you
fear. So it does definitely increase the level of animosity, hate and so forth
because it is an unknown and it’s a frightening unknown," Gordon said.
The
Israeli government promotes the wall as a way to protect Israeli civilians from
Palestinian violence. Palestinians say that the wall, which cuts deep into the
occupied West Bank, is a means for Israel to seize more Palestinian land.
When
finished, the wall is expected to annex 530 square kilometers of Palestinian
land, equivalent to the area of Chicago, the United States’ third largest city,
according to the Palestinian human rights group Al Haq.
Keeping
Africans out
But
Israel’s push to erect walls and fences around itself doesn’t end in the West
Bank; construction of a 230-kilometer fence along Israel’s southern boundary
with Egypt is moving forward at a frantic pace, in an attempt to keep African
asylum seekers out.
Ironically,
asylum seekers in Israel who now number approximately 60,000 are themselves
involved in the building of the fence and its infrastructure. Most of them have
reached Israel through the Egyptian Sinai desert.
"I
feel like I’m doing something against myself," said 29-year-old Mohammad
Anur Adam, a refugee from Darfur in western Sudan, who spent eight months
building a road that the Israeli military and police will use to patrol the
fence.
"There
is no work, that’s why," Adam said from his home in Eilat, Israel’s
southernmost city, only a few kilometres from Egypt.
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the fence is necessary to maintain
peaceful relations with Egypt. "To continue the peace, there must be
security and to this end a fence is necessary," he has said. "Its
rapid construction is important for both peace and security."
Netanyahu
announced early this year that once the fence along Israel’s boundary with
Egypt is completed, Israel would build one along the boundary with Jordan.
Even
before this announcement, Jordanian King Abdullah II said in interview with The
Wall Street Journal in September last year that "Israel has to decide;
does it want to be part of the neighborhood or does it want to be fortress
Israel?"
Desire
to be gated
Israeli
historian Ilan Pappe said Israel’s "fortress" mentality is nothing
new, and is a product of early Zionist thinking.
"The
main Zionist and later Israeli impulse was not to be part of the Middle East
but to belong to Europe," Pappe said. "Whether they have real or
imaginary enemies in their own state or on the state’s borders, the Israeli
Jewish society voluntarily wishes to be gated so as not blend with the
'primitive’ Palestinian or Arab environment."
Pappe
believes the Israeli siege mentality forces the state to deal with its
neighbors only through force, which in turn isolates it even more from the
larger Middle East.
"Breaking
down the real and imaginary walls can only be done when Israel, absurdly the
strongest military power in the region, will be courageous enough to give up
some of its privileges and make Israel and Palestine a more equal state and
accept that it is part of the Middle East, its problems and solutions."
In
June, the Israeli authorities completed construction of a seven-meter high wall
separating the country from Lebanon. The wall — equipped with cameras and
motion detection sensors — covers approximately 1,200 meters.
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