World unites against Sharon's Wall

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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British MPs speak out against Israeli wall

Leading the debate in Westminster Hall, Labour MP Gerald Kaufman, himself a Jew, stated that “the regime of military tyranny is bad enough, but worse still is the wall that the Israelis are building in large tracts of Palestinian land.”

Addressing the junior UK foreign minister, Bill Rammel, Kaufman said: "I do not look to my hon. Friend the Minister simply to restate the Government’s admirable position on the building of the wall; I am asking him to give us some idea of what can be done to stop the extension of this abomination".

Labour MP Mark Hendrick also called the Wall ** “a land-grab.”**

http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=102424

** Swedish FM condemns Israel’s ‘security’ wall**

“The Israeli occupation has to be ended,” Lalia Frifalds (Swedish FM) said in an article published by the Swedish Svenska Dagbladet daily”.

According to a report prepared by the UN commission on Human Rights, over 210,000 Palestinians will be seriously affected by the Wall. Palestinians living between the Wall and the Green Line will be effectively cut off from their farmlands, workplaces, schools, health clinics and other social services.

The UN General assembly approved a resolution condemning it...

http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2003/2003-11/024.html

[thumb=D]qalqiya1.JPG[/thumb]

This image taken on 7 Jun 2003 show ongoing construction of the Israeli security wall. When complete it will surround the town of Qalqilyah. Israeli Military Checkpoints will be the only way in and out of the town

Chota – I’m glad global opinion is so strongly against this atrocity being committed in the name of ‘security’. I hope more and more people come forward to stop the evil Israeli regime in its tracks and curb its diabolical expansionist policies.

I say put ‘humpty-dumpty’ (the Fat man) on his own wall and let’s cheer him on to a great fall.

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nothing is going to happen. israel will continue to built the wall as long as USA is on its side, amply supported by so called muslims who think israel is a victom of palestinian terrorism. i say put yourself there and then see who is victom and who is the aggressor.

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This is the next chapter to the ethnic Cleansing policy which Israel has adopted against the Palestinians.

Israel’s Wall Severely Harms 30% Of Palestinians](http://www.turks.us/article.php?story=2003111304541833) Turks.us News 14 Nov 03

GAZA CITY, November 12 (IOL) - **Israel’s controversial West Bank separation wall will lead to severe humanitarian consequences for more than 680,000 Palestinians (30 percent), according to a new United Nations report. Conducted by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the report concluded that little consideration appears to have been given by the Israeli government to the wall’s disastrous impact on Palestinian lives, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP), which obtained a copy of the survey. **

“The damage caused by the destruction of land and property for the wall’s construction is irreversible and undermines Palestinians’ ability to ever recover even if the political situation allows conditions to improve,” said the report. “More than 400,000 other Palestinians living to the east of the wall will need to cross it to get to their farms, jobs and services. This means that approximately 680,000 – 30 percent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank - will be directly harmed by the wall,” it said.

It added that some 210,000 acres (85,000 hectares) – or 14.5 percent – of West Bank land would lie between the path of the barrier and the “Green Line,” the internationally-recognized boundary between Israel and the West Bank. “This land, some of the most fertile in the West Bank, is currently the home for more than 274,000 Palestinians living in 122 villages and towns,” it said. "These people will either live in closed areas – areas between the wall and the Green Line - or in enclaves totally surrounded by the wall. …

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They're going for a major cull and people worry about fox hunting.

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s foreign minister said Wednesday that work would not stop on a huge barrier in the West Bank despite President Bush’s plea to Israel not to prejudice peace talks by erecting “walls and fences.”

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3853052&fromEmail=true

Chota - Well now even the Monkey King has joined the chorus, just ahead of his trip to Europe, I wonder if this will have any wider implications or just more words.

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Poor old motoo trying desperate (and facist) tactics to stop what is inevitable i.e. the rebirth of the historical Palestinian nation - the only thing that will ensure peace for all in this land.

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U.S. to trim Israeli loan package over settlements, fence

By Nathan Guttman, Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration announced
Tuesday night that it will trim $289.5 million
from a $9 billion package of loan guarantees for
Israel, penalizing Israel for its settlement
activities in the territories.

In talks held Tuesday morning
between Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon’s bureau chief Dov
Weisglass, U.S. National
Security Advisor Condoleezza
Rice and Israel’s ambassador
to the U.S. Danny Ayalon, it
was agreed that the cut would
also set off Israel’s
investments in several

segments of the West Bank security fence, but
these investments would be defined in a
separate clause of the U.S. decision.

The calculation includes the sums that the
Israeli government has spent in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip both on infrastructure and on
the security fence, but does not include
investments defined as “security investments.”

HMMMM…

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^
i never thought money was of any importance to israel, that too a sorry amount of 289M. USA will have to do more than that to show its displeasure but bush can't take that risk. elections are near and a happy israel means a victory in elections.

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Yeah, what is a quarter of a Billion between friends?

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This tiny gesture of stopping a few million for Israel means little in real terms, everyone knows thats just a drop in the ocean compared to what the Bush Adminstration actually pays to support the IDF and Israels economy.

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Once the wall is completed, the only choice for the people living in towns like Qalqilyah will be to either rot until death in a massive concentration camp or leave for a place like Jordan. It's a cunningly smart way of systematic eradication and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.

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The World courts ruling against the Apartheid govt of SA in 1971 led to sanctions and the eventual downfall of the regime. Could a similar ruling be applied against Israel? According to the SA Foreign minster there is a very strong case to hold Israel accountable for breaking international law.

South Africa: Israel’s fence is illegal](The Jerusalem Post - All News from the Middle East, Israel, and the Jewish World) Jersusalem Post 23 Feb 04

South Africa sent its deputy foreign minister to back the Palestinian case at the world court, arguing that the security fence was a bid to annex territory in the West Bank. “It is not a security wall. It is a wall to enforce the occupation,” lawmaker Aziz Pahad told the Court. Pahad asked the Court to rule that the security fence violated international law. In 1971, the World Court ruled that apartheid South Africa’s occupation of Namibia was illegal. Pahad said that the 1971 ruling, which led to international sanctions against the National Party-led Apartheid government, contributed to the downfall of Apartheid in 1994.

“South Africa which was once a subject of this court is in the midst celebrating 10 years of our democracy. After centuries of division and conflict, South Africans found the political will to build a new democratic society,” Pahad said. **“The fact that this court had the courage to pronounce on the legal consequences on the continued presence of South Africa in Namibia contributed to the achievement of democracy,” he added. **

The African National Congress (ANC), which came to power in South Africa at the end of white rule, was closely allied with the Palestinian Liberation Organization during decades of struggle against Apartheid rule. **Pahad told the court that it is unlikely that the barrier is temporary as Israel is spending about $2 billion on its construction. **

In its written arguments, Israel claimed the court has no authority over the matter. It says the dispute should be resolved through negotiations, and that taking the matter to court will undermine the internationally backed road map peace plan. Israel also says the barrier is a response to Palestinian violence, pointing to Sunday’s suicide bombing in Jerusalem, which killed eight people, as proof of the need for the structure.

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HRW: The barrier “entails serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law,”

HRW slams Israel for barrier](http://www.iribnews.com/Full_en.asp?news_id=199079&n=32) IRIB 23 Feb 04

International pressure group Human Rights Watch on Monday slammed Israel’s West Bank barrier as a “serious violation” of the Jewish state’s obligations under the Geneva Conventions and a blatant attempt to consolidate illegal Jewish settlement in the territories. The barrier “entails serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law,” the group said in a briefing paper released just hours before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) begins debating the legality of the vast enterprise.

“Israel’s separation barrier seriously impedes Palestinian access to essentials of civilian life, such as work, education and medical care,” said Joe Stork, acting head of the group’s Middle East and North Africa division. By confining more than 100,000 civilians inside enclaves which are regulated by a highly-complex regime of permits, the barrier will “institutionalise a system in which all movement for large numbers of people is sharply curtailed,” thereby endangering access to basic services, the group said.

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The Hague - The International Court of Justice finished its hearings Wednesday into the legality of Israel’s West Bank after three days of testimony. “I declare that this sitting is closed,” the court’s president, Chinese judge Shi Jiuyong, said at The Hague. He said that “a date for the court to announce its rulings” would be set later.

West Bank Wall Hearing Closed](http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1489210,00.html) News 24, 25 Feb 04