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Stop the Wall: People v. Oppression - by Stephen Lendman
This article follows an earlier UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Special Report titled, "The Impact of the Barrier on Health," accessed through the following link:
Stop the Wall.org (STW) is a "Palestinian movement against the (Separation) Wall and the settlements under Israeli repression," calling for it to be stopped, portions built dismantled, all confiscated lands returned, and compensation paid for losses.
On July 9, it released a report titled, "People versus Oppression," a March - June 2010 account of Israeli repression, including "large scale violations of the civil, political and human rights of activists and communities active against the Wall that compounds the dispossession brought upon them by (its) illegal construction."
In defiance of the International Criminal Court (ICJ) ruling it illegal, calling for it to be dismantled and reparations paid for lost homes, businesses, farmland, orchards, olive groves, and other immovable property seized, construction continues unabated, committing human rights violations against many thousands affected.
Over the past year alone, harsh repression included killings, targeted assassinations, mass arrests, travel bans, raids against Stop the Wall's offices, and other Palestinian organizations and international activists, notably Freedom Flotilla ones, up to 15 murdered in cold blood in international waters delivering humanitarian aid to besieged Gazans.
From March - June 2010, the "extent of violence and dehumanization (has been) staggering."
The past year "marked (a) quantitative shift in....Israel('s) overall policies and strategies," its ongoing deterrence and oppression agenda, punctuated by daily violence against defenseless civilians, including women and children, endangering their struggle for justice, self-determination and peace, notions Israel spurns, preferring conflict to conciliation, collective punishment to the rule of law, and crimes of war and against humanity over democratic freedoms and equal justice - how all rogue states operate.
Combined, they're "part of a new Israeli strategy to deal with growing international (and internal) criticism - through legislation, belligerence, and repression, including Wall construction, land theft, and isolation.
The Wall and Settlements
Projected to exceed 800 km when completed, its route is mostly within the Green Line, confiscating Palestinian land and resources by:
"a network of walls, fences, military zones, 34 fortified checkpoints, 44 tunnels, 634 checkpoints and obstructions, and 1,661 km of settler roads." Combined with settlements, military zones, parks, commercial developments, other closed areas, and open spaces, more than 46% of the West Bank will be annexed, destroying villages and isolating others into Bantustans, surrounded and denied all rights, including free movement.
Up to eight meters high with watchtowers and a buffer zone 30 - 100 meters wide for electric fences, it included trenches, cameras, sensors, and military patrols.
Other portions consist of razor wire topped fences, patrol roads, sand paths to trace footprints, ditches and surveillance cameras, encircling communities, others between the Wall and Green Line in the so-called Seam Zone, requiring landowners and residents have permits to stay in their homes and access their land.
The effect is devastating, isolating thousands from their property and means of subsistence, dispossessing others to facilitate construction, forcing over 266,000 in 78 communities to abandon their homes, land, and livelihoods, their ability to access health care, education, religious sites, and their right move freely and live normally in peace - a state of hellish dystopia.
