Israel has now seized more land in
the West Bank than it gave up with the removal
of all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.
Reports in the Israeli press
indicate that extensions to the security wall that Israel
is building in the West Bank were quickly erected this past August, when the
world’s media attention was focused on the withdrawal from Gaza.Three separate extensions to the wall were built on the northern edge of
Jerusalem, and
construction on them is rapidly approaching completion.Right now, it is still possible for
Palestinians who live in the villages adjacent to the north and east of Jerusalem to enter Jerusalem.
However, once these sections of the wall are complete, thousands of
Palestinians will have been completely cut off from their families, jobs and
businesses in East Jerusalem.
Israeli commentators have
pointed out that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government is attempting to
negate any Palestinian claim to Jerusalem through a combined approach of
‘Judeaization’ – moving Jewish settlers into East Jerusalem to reduce the
Palestinian percentage of the population – and simply making it impossible for
a future Palestinian government to have any way of physically accessing East
Jerusalem, which the Palestinians have always said will be the capital of an
independent Palestinian state.
Israel has also used the past few
months to rapidly expand the wall into other parts of the West
Bank. In total, the West Bank wall is now over 600 km long and,
when completed, will result in absorption of over one third of the West Bank
into Israel.The Israeli government is widely expected to
proclaim the wall is Israel’s
new border, once its construction is complete.
In addition, at a meeting
of the Likud Party and its allies in September, Sharon is reported to have said it was
important to expand the settlements without drawing the world’s attention.The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz quoted him as
saying: “There’s no need to talk.We
need to build, and we’re building without talking.”
According to media
reports, new building of Jewish settlements during the first quarter of 2005
was up by 83 percent compared to the same period in 2004. About 4,000 homes are
currently under construction in the West Bank settlements, with thousands more
homes approved for construction in the areas seized by Israel since August.The population in the West
Bank settlements has also increased by roughly 14,000 so far in
2005 – compared with the 8,500 settlers who were withdrawn from the Gaza Strip.