The Israeli Separation Wall and the Palestinian Economy

Introduction

In April 2002, the Israeli government began building a complex series of walls, barriers, and trenches along the western border of the West Bank. The Wall is a separation barrier constructed in part from massive concrete slabs and watch towers that strike the observer (Kearney, 2003).

The Wall surrounds the Palestinian city of Qalqilya, imprisoning a population of 400,000 behind eight-meter-high walls, with the single remaining access road controlled by an Israeli military base and checkpoint. At other points, the Wall consists of layers of razor wire, military patrol roads, sand paths to trace footprints, ditches, surveillance cameras, and a three-meter-high electric fence running through the middle. A "buffer zone" exists 30–100 meters on each side of the Wall. Palestinians are not permitted to enter this zone, which is composed of electric fences, trenches, cameras, and sensors, and is patrolled by the Israeli military.

While gates have been included in the construction of the Wall, they are grossly insufficient, and Palestinians face serious difficulties crossing from one side to the other in order to access their farmland or attend school (Kearney, 2003). According to Israeli army plans submitted to the Israeli High Court, Phase One of the Wall was to incorporate 26 "agricultural crossings" along its route, with an additional five crossings in the "depth barriers" located further to the east. In a report on the Wall, however, the World Bank stated that their team found preparations for only one such crossing.

About the Wall

Lucy Mair and Robyn Long (2003) describe how the Wall is affecting the futures of Palestinian citizens. "Uncertainty about the future intensified for Mufida Ahmad's family this year when a mammoth wall ripped through their land in the West Bank village of Jayyus. Ahmad and her husband had bought the quarter acre for $1,400 — a hefty but hopeful investment for the family of seven. On it, they cultivated eight olive trees. To pay for the land, and to pay off a $4,000 bank loan they had taken to meet the family's basic needs, Ahmad worked nine hours a day in a sewing factory for a mere $150 a month. But the trees, land, and future for which they had sacrificed have all disappeared under the Israeli Separation Wall."

The Wall is referred to as a "security fence" by the Israeli government and as the "Apartheid Wall" by Palestinians. These different names reflect the sharply opposing attitudes of each side toward the barrier.

The first phase of construction was launched in June 2002 and completed just 13 months later, in July 2003. The completed section stretches for 90 miles through the northwestern West Bank districts of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Qalqiliya, and at several points cuts almost four miles into the West Bank. The Israeli government has planned three additional building phases and aimed to finish the entire structure by 2005.

Although it is relatively new, the Wall has already resulted in Israel's annexation of fertile Palestinian agricultural land, groundwater wells, and ten illegal Israeli Jewish-only settlements. If built in its entirety, the first three-phase Wall alone will have enabled the largest confiscation of Palestinian land since 1967, will devastate the agricultural base of the West Bank, and will destroy any possibility of an economically viable Palestinian state (Mair and Long, 2003).

If both walls are built, they will imprison the entire West Bank and run over 400 miles — four times the length of the Berlin Wall. They will absorb some of the most fertile land and richest water resources in the West Bank and partition the territory into three ghettos: one located around the cities of Nablus and Jenin in the north, a second in Ramallah in the north-center, and a third in Bethlehem/Hebron in the south. As a result, less than half of the West Bank will remain in Palestinian hands — just 12% of pre-1948 Palestine.

The Wall will completely separate East Jerusalem, which was illegally annexed by Israel in 1980, from the rest of the West Bank. East Jerusalem is not only the planned capital of a future Palestinian state, but also the religious, cultural, social, and economic center of the West Bank. A total of 430,000 West Bank Palestinians, including those in East Jerusalem, will be imprisoned on the Israeli side of the Wall.