US Supports Israeli Wall
From The Paliestine Monitor, October 15, 2003

In a day-long Security Council meeting yesterday, 44 speakers raised
concerns regarding the wall being built by Israel in the West Bank. Opening
the meeting, which had been requested by Syria on behalf of the Arab
League, Nasser al-Kidwa, the Permanent Observer for Palestine said Israel
was committing a war crime against the Palestinians by building an
expansionist wall within occupied Palestinian territory.

Along with settlement activities, the construction of the wall involves the
illegal, de facto annexation of expansive areas of occupied land that will
effectively transfer a large number of Palestinian civilians and constrict
the rest in several walled Bantustans. Nasser al-Kidwa said Israel's claim
that the wall was a security measure was incredulous and Israel could build
protective walls along the armistice line if that were the case. The US
representative and Council President, John Negroponte, said however that a
Council resolution focused on the fence would not further the goal of peace
in the region.

The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution,
using its veto as one of five permanent members of the council. Four of the
15 members of the Security Council abstained including Great Britain
despite a foreign office declaration from London on October 1st stating
that "any fence built should be on the Green Line or in Israeli territory.
Breaking up the West Bank with the fence, and settlements like Ariel are an
obstacle to the two state solution..." Israel's UN ambassador Dan Gillerman
absurdly insisted the wall has no political significance. He said "it does
not annex territories to the state of Israel, nor does it change the status
of the land, its ownership, or the legal status of the residents of these
areas".

Mr Gillerman obviously has not read the October 2, Israeli military order
declaring all occupied West Bank land between the "security" wall and
Israel's pre-occupation 1967 border a "Closed Zone". The order states that
"no person will enter the (Closed Zone) and no one will remain there." Free
access to the Closed Zone will only be granted to "Israelis" (defined as
Israeli citizens, Israeli residents and anyone who is Jewish). The order
requires Palestinian residents of the Closed Zone to obtain permits to live
in their houses, farm their land and travel. Palestinians not residing in
the in this zone but whose agricultural lands lie within the Closed Zone
will also be required to apply for a permit to farm their land.

Nothing in the order guarantees that the permits will be respected if they
are indeed granted. This order clearly represents the latest Israeli
attempts to rid more and more areas of Palestinian land of its inhabitants.
Israel is openly adopting, and treating the Closed Zone as part of Israel,
unashamedly annexing all illegal Jewish settlements, which lie within in
the zone, to the state of Israel. The political significance of the wall is
therefore colossal. Israel is using the Wall to redraw Israel's
geo-political border and in doing so is destroying any chance of peace by
flagrantly devastating any possibility of the creation of a viable
Palestinian state.