Statistics: The Wall

Israel’s Wall: The Facts

Currently, approximately 409 km (or 57%) of the planned route has been constructed. 66km (or 9%) is under construction; and construction has not yet begun on 248km (or 34%) of the planned route.

The Wall’s total length is 723km, which is twice the length of the 1949 Armistice Line (Green Line) between the West Bank and Israel.

When completed, approximately 14% of the Wall will constructed on the Green Line or in Israel, while 86% will be inside the West Bank.
Approximately 385,000 settlers in 80 settlements are located between the Wall and the Green Line.

Approximately 35,000 West Bank Palestinians will be located between the Wall and the Green Line (an area known as ‘no man’s land’). They require permits to live in their homes and can only leave their communities via a gate in the Wall. This is in addition to the majority of the 250,000 East Jerusalem residents.

Approximately 125,000 Palestinians in 28 communities will be surrounded on three sides by the Wall.

Approximately 26,000 Palestinians in 8 communities will be surrounded on four sides by the Wall, with a tunnel or road connection to the rest of the West Bank.

The cost of the Wall to the Israeli government: approximately $3.7 million per kilometer, and approx $4 billion when completed. Building the Wall along the Green Line would have saved Israel 5.7 billion NIS i.e. approx $1.7 billion (calculated with 3.4 exchange rate).

Israel’s Wall

The construction of Israel’s Separation Wall began on the 16th of June, 2002 and consists of a series of 25-foot-high concrete slabs, trenches, barbed wire “buffer zones”, electrified fencing, numerous watch towers, thermal imaging video cameras, sniper towers and roads for patrol vehicles.

Israel originally claimed that the Wall was being built to protect Israel proper from attacks emanating from either the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, and that it was not meant to be a unilateral declaration of their borders. It quickly became apparent that neither of these claims were wholly true.

Israel’s own security apparatus, as well as a number of independent military analysts have consistently concluded that the Wall does little or nothing to protect Israelis from Palestinians, and that in fact, any reduction in violence coinciding with the construction of the Wall is due to political conciliation rather than the Wall itself.

Rather than serving any real security needs, it is now clear that the Wall constitutes a further effort by Israel to annex Palestinian land and resources, and enclose the major settlement blocks. Only 16% of the Wall has been constructed on the 1967 ‘Green Line’, while the rest snakes in and around major settlements. Despite rulings by both International Court of Justice and Israel’s own Supreme Court, the trajectory of the Wall has not changed. Instead, much like the settlements that it captures, the Wall constitutes a ‘fact on the ground’, or de-facto border, from which Israeli negotiators will begin to bargain.

Many experts and observers have focused on what the Wall ‘is not’ or ‘does not do’ - namely provide security for Israelis living within and beyond the 1967 Green Line - while few look at what it truly ‘is’ and what it ‘does do’ to Palestinians and the prospects of a future state. The Wall in the West Bank, captures not only land and resources, it sometimes envelopes entire Palestinian cities. When combined with the buffer zones and service roads, the Wall destroys the contiguity of the West Bank and further slices any future state into a collection of isolated cantons.

The Wall and a Viable Palestinian State

The Wall will isolate 10,2% of West Bank territory: the area located between the Green Line and the completed barrier, including East Jerusalem and ‘No Man’s Land’. In addition to this, another 28,1% of the West Bank is inaccessible to Palestinians (due to settlements, declared Israeli military areas or restricted road networks) bringing the total land area restricted from Palestinian access to 38,3%. The enclosed areas include some of the most valuable agricultural land and access to some of the richest water resources in the West Bank, which has had a severe impact on Palestinian farmers.

The Ministry of Defense Information website promises that: ’Israel will establish gates to allow free passage across the Area.’ and that ’Special arrangements have been made for Palestinian farmers separated from their lands. Gates along the Security fence will enable Palestinian farmers and their workers to cross from one side to another’.

Despite these promises, of those Palestinians who are now separated by the Wall from their farming lands and wells, less than 20% have now been granted ‘visitor’ permits to access their own lands. Even if permission is granted, it is often not given to the most appropriate person, leaving older family members to do the work, whilst the younger generation has to remain at home. The access to agricultural lands is through 64 designated gates which are currently open on a daily, weekly and/or seasonal basis. The irregular placement of the gates and the restrictive opening times gravely limits the time available for farming.

The Wall does not only severely restrict the farmers’ ability to tend to and harvest their crops, it also impairs them from selling their produce. The olive industry, which provides around 18% of the annual agricultural production income in the West Bank, has not only been harmed by the cutting down of tens of thousands of trees, but also by the lack of ability for the farmers to harvest and sell their produce. The overall damage caused by the destruction of land and property for the Wall’s construction will take many years to recover further hindering Palestinian development.

In addition to the approximately 630 closure obstacles such as checkpoints, earth mounds, and road barriers, other layers of the complex movement restrictions include: a permit regime, restrictions on the use of main roads, random checkpoints, curfews, and age and gender restrictions. The Israeli authorities are also investing large amounts of money into transport-related infrastructure in the West bank – the so called “fabric of life” roads. These are newly constructed or upgraded alternative routes designed to reconnect Palestinian communities that have been severed by the Wall or other closure obstacles. Most of these “fabric of life” roads include tunnels and underpasses going beneath the Wall or restricted road. The cost of the completed and planned infrastructure is approximately 2 billion NIS.

In September of this year OCHA commented on the Wall that, ‘what was once justified by the Israeli authorities as a short-term military response (…) appears to be developing into a permanent system’.

The Wall under International Law

In its advisory opinion on 9 July 2004, the International Court of Justice stated that Israel is in breach of international law as the “construction of the wall and its associated regime cre-ate a “fait accompli” on the ground that could well become permanent” that there is a “risk of situation tantamount to de facto annexation”. Furthermore, “the construction of the wall severely impedes the exercise by the Palestinian people of its right to self-determination and is therefore a breach of Israel’s obligation to respect that right.” The Court also ruled that “the infringements resulting from that route (of the wall) cannot be justified by military exigencies or by the require-ments of security or public order”.

Israel was further obliged “to cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall, to dismantle it” and to “make reparation for the damage caused” to all those affected by the construction of the Wall, and “to return the land, orchards, olive groves and other immovable property seized”.

Facts About the Apartheid Wall

1 - The Wall will run over 650 km (400 miles) inside the West Bank.

2 - The Wall is being built deep within the West Bank as it zigzags throughout 10 out of the 11 West Bank districts. The Wall, on this path, de facto annexes nearly 50% of the West Bank and completely destroys all continuity of life in the region.

The Wall begins at the northern most point in the West Bank and runs through the western districts of the West Bank to the north of Jerusalem; the Wall is not being built on or near the 1967 Green Line and at points reaches 16 km (some 10 miles) deep right into the heart of the West Bank in order to annex major Israeli Jewish-only settlements. After cutting through neighborhoods and villages in East Jerusalem, the Wall picks up by Bethlehem and continues south to Hebron. In eastern West Bank, a second wall begins again in the northern West Bank and, running somewhat parallel to the first wall de facto annexes the Jordan Valley, extends south to Jerusalem where it connects with the first Wall, and thereafter stretches through the southern West Bank.

3 - The Wall takes on a variety of forms; around Qalqiliya the Wall is pure concrete eight meters (25 feet) high and fortified with armed watchtowers and in other areas it may be part concrete/part fence or a series of razor wire and/or electric fencing all of which includes a 70-100 meter (approximately 230-330 feet) “buffer zone” with trenches, roads, razor wire, cameras, and trace paths for footprints. In Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the Wall is made up of a combination of these edifices.

4 - The Israeli government began building the Wall in June 2002 in the northern West Bank districts of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Qalqiliya; at the end of July 2003, Israel announced the “completion” of this section, the so-called “first phase”, which stretches some 145 km (90 miles). However, the Israeli government continues to raze land, destroy shops, homes, and infrastructure in these areas as well as pave way for the “buffer zone”. Simultaneously, destruction for and building of the Wall has been taking place in northern Jerusalem by Qalandiya and Kafr Aqab, in the neighborhood Abu Dis in eastern Jerusalem, and around Bethlehem, Beit Sahur, and Beit Jala. The latest announcements of the Israeli government predict the completion of the Wall by 2005.

5 - At the cost of 12 million NIS or 2.8 million USD per km, the Wall is not a “temporary” measure but the continuation of Israel’s theft of Palestinian land and iron grip of Palestinian resources. The Wall, through its path which is marked by land annexation and destruction, is clearly a “tool” for the Israeli government in maximizing the confiscation of Palestinian land for future settlement expansion. The devastating reality which the Wall imposes is meant to ensure that Palestinians will be forcibly expelled from areas Israel looks to annex and “demographically contained” in other areas by creating permanent “facts on the ground” for the continued colonization of Palestine.

6 - The Wall is devastating every aspect of Palestinian life—already tens of communities have experienced the loss of land, water, and resources which provide their sustenance as well as the destruction of community and personal property. Palestinian villages and towns near the Wall have become isolated ghettos where movement in and out is limited, if not impossible, thus severing travel for work, health, education, and visits to friends and family. For instance, in the 18 communities surrounded into an enclave in the Tulkarem district the inability to travel due to the Wall and Israeli military “closures” has brought the unemployment rate up from 18% in 2000 to an estimated 78% in the spring of 2003. In Qalqiliya, where the Wall hermitically seals the city with one Israeli military controlled checkpoint, nearly 10% of the 42,000 residents have been forced to leave their homes due to the city’s imprisonment, closure of the market, and inability to find work.

7 - The notion of “access” gates where the Israeli military will “permit” Palestinians to travel to their land demonstrates the Wall’s institutionalization and follows the Israeli “permit” system which began during the 1993 Oslo Process whereby the Israeli government has been consolidating absolute control over every aspect of life in Palestine through dictating all aspects of movement.

8 - The Wall is the continuation of the Zionist/Israeli expansionist agenda of stealing Palestinian land and forcibly expelling residents—the Wall’s path equates to the de facto annexation of nearly 50% of the West Bank and almost all of the Israeli settlements.

Around Jerusalem the Wall is completing the Zionist/Israeli project of “Greater Jerusalem”, formally endorsed by the Knesset in 1997, which aims at “judaizing” and annexing East Jerusalem into a Jewish metropolitan area. The Wall closes Jerusalem off to the north and south of the West Bank, but remains “open” to the east for the still expanding settlement Ma’ale Adumim. Upon the Wall’s completion, this will amount to the confiscation of 90% of the land in the Jerusalem district.

The path of the Wall has been openly dictated by intentions to include settlements within the Israeli government and society. In March 2003, the Yesha Council of settlers worked with the Israeli government to extend the Wall’s path further into the West Bank south of Qalqiliya in order to bring the settlements of Ariel, Immanuel, and Qedumim into the Israeli “controlled area”. One week later, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon announced the building of the Wall in the Jordan Valley in order to “separate” the string of settlements in this region from the rest of the West Bank. Thus, the Wall will de facto annex 98% of the settler population.

9 - It is entirely unacceptable to build the Wall on the 1967 Green Line—there is a fundamental injustice in caging in an entire population. While the 1967 Green Line is advocated by the UN and many others to be the “international border” between Israel and the West Bank, the fact is that, following the 1948 war and the Zionist proclamation of the State of Israel, communities were forcibly and artificially divided into east/west by this “border”. However, the residents continue to share social services, markets, and familiar ties. To advocate that the Wall could be built on the 1967 Green Line is to legitimize the forcible separation of these communities.

10 - The Wall, as well as the Occupation itself, comprises a wide range of violations to international law. A major violation of the Apartheid Wall is the unilateral demarcation of a new border in the West Bank that amounts to effective annexation of occupied land (United Nations Charter, art. 2.4).

Furthermore, destruction for and building of the Wall has amounted to numerous more violations of the IV Geneva Convention (IV GC) including the destruction of land and/or property (art. 53) and collective punishment (art. 33).

The Wall also breaches the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966) and the International Covenant on Economical, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966), both of which Israel has signed. The rights violated include: freedom of movement (ICCPR, art. 12), property (ICCPR, art. 1,), health (ICESCR, art.12 and IV GC, art. 32), education (ICESCR, art.13, and IV GC, art. 50), work (ICESCR, art. 6), and food (ICESCR, art. 11).

Under Article 1 of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (1979) the Wall constitutes a “Crime against Humanity”. It divides populations on the basis of race and ethnicity and discrimination against residents in the West Bank to benefit illegal Israeli settlers and thus complies with the definition of “apartheid”.

These are only a few of the articles in international conventions and declarations which the Wall infringes upon. The chapter The Wall Under International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law in The Wall in Palestine: Facts, Testimonies, Analysis, and Call to Action provides more analysis and examples of the Wall under international law.

About the Wall

The creation of Israel’s Apartheid wall around Palestinian settlements in the West Bank is a further example of the expansion of Israel’s authority over civilians occupying land beyond the 1949 ‘Green Line’. The wall acts not only as an impenetrable barrier between civilians on both sides of the West Bank border, but prevents the creation of a viable Palestinian state which is increasingly fragmented by the 400 mile long construction, and forced to rely on outside aid to compensate and ensure welfare for it’s people, cut off from their jobs and former land possessions in newly claimed Israeli territory.

It is important that we act now to pressure our government into action on the issue of Palestine, something for which Blair at least is a strong advocate, and ensure that effective measures are taken against the Israeli government to prevent both consolidation of apartheid policy, and further unrest between Israeli and Palestinian civilians who are face increasing insecurity.

“We find the continued construction of Israel’s West Bank barrier to be in breach of basic human rights, and therefore unacceptable. We strongly urge the international community to forcefully oppose the completion of this project and exercise necessary restraint on Israeli authority.”