The wall photos
Showing posts with label Apartheid Wall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apartheid Wall. Show all posts
International Court of Justice Rules Israel's Barrier Illegal, Violates International Law, and Should be Torn Down
International Court of Justice Rules Israel's Barrier Illegal, Violates
International Law, and Should be Torn Down
9 July 2004
The World Court strongly condemned Israel's West Bank barrier as illegal Friday, saying it imposed hardship on thousands of Palestinians and must be torn down. The court said in a ruling which was ordered by the UN General Assembly and was hailed by Palestinians and rejected by Israel that the barrier violated international humanitarian law.
It called on the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly to stop the barrier's construction.
But the United States, which has vetoed Security Council resolutions against Israel in the past, dismissed the court's intervention and an American judge, Bluementhal, was the only one of the 15-member panel who did not back the ruling.
"The construction ... constitutes breaches by Israel of its obligations under applicable international humanitarian law. Israel is under an obligation ... to dismantle forthwith the structure," the court's head judge, Shi Jiuyong of China, said in the ruling.
The route of the 370-mile barrier, about a third built, "severely impeded" Palestinian rights to self-rule, he said. It curves at points deep into the West Bank around Israeli squatterments (illegal settlements) built on land occupied in the 1967 Israeli pre-emptive war.
The court, the U.N.'s top legal body, acknowledged Israel had a duty to protect its citizens but said it must do so within the law and should compensate Palestinians for homes and land lost or damaged by the building of the barrier.
"The court considers that the construction of the wall and its associate regime creates a 'fait accompli' on the ground that could well become permanent, in which case ... it would be tantamount to de facto annexation," said the ruling.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said: "This is a victory for the Palestinian people and for all the free peoples of the world."
While Israel says the barrier is vital to protect its citizens from suicide bombers, Palestinians say it is a land grab that robs them of territory they want for a state.
If it were built for security reasons, as Israelis claim, they should have built it within the Israeli border, not deep inside the Palestinian territories, as it is now.
The barrier has trapped thousands of Palestinians in enclaves cut off from fields, schools, markets, public services and cities. If it is completed as planned, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will be trapped between Israel and the Palestinian territory of the West Bank. They will not be able to reach their schools, jobs, hospitals, fields, and other facilities. This situation will lead them to leave the trapped area, which will be annexed by Israelis.
Arab envoys said the Palestinians would ask the U.N. General Assembly to adopt a resolution affirming the court's ruling.
About 150 demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and holding banners reading "Boycott Israel" and "Away with Apartheid" gathered outside the court. Some of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who were Orthodox Jewish Americans wearing the Palestinian checkered cloth symbol of resistance to the occupation. They chanted slogans against the Israeli occupation of Palestine and against the Apartheid, Land-Grab Wall.
"I hope there will be sanctions and I hope Israel will be forced to tear down that wall," said Mariejose van Overveld, a 54-year-old Dutch housewife wrapped in a Palestinian flag
The World Court strongly condemned Israel's West Bank barrier as illegal Friday, saying it imposed hardship on thousands of Palestinians and must be torn down. The court said in a ruling which was ordered by the UN General Assembly and was hailed by Palestinians and rejected by Israel that the barrier violated international humanitarian law.
It called on the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly to stop the barrier's construction.
But the United States, which has vetoed Security Council resolutions against Israel in the past, dismissed the court's intervention and an American judge, Bluementhal, was the only one of the 15-member panel who did not back the ruling.
"The construction ... constitutes breaches by Israel of its obligations under applicable international humanitarian law. Israel is under an obligation ... to dismantle forthwith the structure," the court's head judge, Shi Jiuyong of China, said in the ruling.
The route of the 370-mile barrier, about a third built, "severely impeded" Palestinian rights to self-rule, he said. It curves at points deep into the West Bank around Israeli squatterments (illegal settlements) built on land occupied in the 1967 Israeli pre-emptive war.
The court, the U.N.'s top legal body, acknowledged Israel had a duty to protect its citizens but said it must do so within the law and should compensate Palestinians for homes and land lost or damaged by the building of the barrier.
"The court considers that the construction of the wall and its associate regime creates a 'fait accompli' on the ground that could well become permanent, in which case ... it would be tantamount to de facto annexation," said the ruling.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said: "This is a victory for the Palestinian people and for all the free peoples of the world."
While Israel says the barrier is vital to protect its citizens from suicide bombers, Palestinians say it is a land grab that robs them of territory they want for a state.
If it were built for security reasons, as Israelis claim, they should have built it within the Israeli border, not deep inside the Palestinian territories, as it is now.
The barrier has trapped thousands of Palestinians in enclaves cut off from fields, schools, markets, public services and cities. If it is completed as planned, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will be trapped between Israel and the Palestinian territory of the West Bank. They will not be able to reach their schools, jobs, hospitals, fields, and other facilities. This situation will lead them to leave the trapped area, which will be annexed by Israelis.
Arab envoys said the Palestinians would ask the U.N. General Assembly to adopt a resolution affirming the court's ruling.
About 150 demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and holding banners reading "Boycott Israel" and "Away with Apartheid" gathered outside the court. Some of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who were Orthodox Jewish Americans wearing the Palestinian checkered cloth symbol of resistance to the occupation. They chanted slogans against the Israeli occupation of Palestine and against the Apartheid, Land-Grab Wall.
"I hope there will be sanctions and I hope Israel will be forced to tear down that wall," said Mariejose van Overveld, a 54-year-old Dutch housewife wrapped in a Palestinian flag
Facts about the wall
Facts about the wall
By PENGON Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
Frequently Asked Questions about the Apartheid Wall
Frequently Asked Questions about the Apartheid Wall
1 - The Wall will run over 650 km (400 miles) inside the West Bank.
2 - The Wall is being built deep within the West Bank as it zigzags throughout 10 out of the 11 West Bank districts. The Wall, on this path, de facto annexes nearly 50% of the West Bank and completely destroys all continuity of life in the region.
The Wall begins at the northern most point in the West Bank and runs through the western districts of the West Bank to the north of Jerusalem; the Wall is not being built on or near the 1967 Green Line and at points reaches 16 km (some 10 miles) deep right into the heart of the West Bank in order to annex major Israeli Jewish-only settlements. After cutting through neighborhoods and villages in East Jerusalem, the Wall picks up by Bethlehem and continues south to Hebron. In eastern West Bank, a second wall begins again in the northern West Bank and, running somewhat parallel to the first wall de facto annexes the Jordan Valley, extends south to Jerusalem where it connects with the first Wall, and thereafter stretches through the southern West Bank.
3 - The Wall takes on a variety of forms; around Qalqiliya the Wall is pure concrete eight meters (25 feet) high and fortified with armed watchtowers and in other areas it may be part concrete/part fence or a series of razor wire and/or electric fencing all of which includes a 70-100 meter (approximately 230-330 feet) “buffer zone” with trenches, roads, razor wire, cameras, and trace paths for footprints. In Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the Wall is made up of a combination of these edifices.
4 - The Israeli government began building the Wall in June 2002 in the northern West Bank districts of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Qalqiliya; at the end of July 2003, Israel announced the “completion” of this section, the so-called “first phase”, which stretches some 145 km (90 miles). However, the Israeli government continues to raze land, destroy shops, homes, and infrastructure in these areas as well as pave way for the “buffer zone”. Simultaneously, destruction for and building of the Wall has been taking place in northern Jerusalem by Qalandiya and Kafr Aqab, in the neighborhood Abu Dis in eastern Jerusalem, and around Bethlehem, Beit Sahur, and Beit Jala. The latest announcements of the Israeli government predict the completion of the Wall by 2005.
5 - At the cost of 12 million NIS or 2.8 million USD per km, the Wall is not a “temporary” measure but the continuation of Israel’s theft of Palestinian land and iron grip of Palestinian resources. The Wall, through its path which is marked by land annexation and destruction, is clearly a “tool” for the Israeli government in maximizing the confiscation of Palestinian land for future settlement expansion. The devastating reality which the Wall imposes is meant to ensure that Palestinians will be forcibly expelled from areas Israel looks to annex and “demographically contained” in other areas by creating permanent “facts on the ground” for the continued colonization of Palestine.
6 - The Wall is devastating every aspect of Palestinian life—already tens of communities have experienced the loss of land, water, and resources which provide their sustenance as well as the destruction of community and personal property. Palestinian villages and towns near the Wall have become isolated ghettos where movement in and out is limited, if not impossible, thus severing travel for work, health, education, and visits to friends and family. For instance, in the 18 communities surrounded into an enclave in the Tulkarem district the inability to travel due to the Wall and Israeli military “closures” has brought the unemployment rate up from 18% in 2000 to an estimated 78% in the spring of 2003. In Qalqiliya, where the Wall hermitically seals the city with one Israeli military controlled checkpoint, nearly 10% of the 42,000 residents have been forced to leave their homes due to the city’s imprisonment, closure of the market, and inability to find work.
7 - The notion of “access” gates where the Israeli military will “permit” Palestinians to travel to their land demonstrates the Wall’s institutionalization and follows the Israeli “permit” system which began during the 1993 Oslo Process whereby the Israeli government has been consolidating absolute control over every aspect of life in Palestine through dictating all aspects of movement.
8 - The Wall is the continuation of the Zionist/Israeli expansionist agenda of stealing Palestinian land and forcibly expelling residents—the Wall’s path equates to the de facto annexation of nearly 50% of the West Bank and almost all of the Israeli settlements.
Around Jerusalem the Wall is completing the Zionist/Israeli project of “Greater Jerusalem”, formally endorsed by the Knesset in 1997, which aims at “judaizing” and annexing East Jerusalem into a Jewish metropolitan area. The Wall closes Jerusalem off to the north and south of the West Bank, but remains “open” to the east for the still expanding settlement Ma’ale Adumim. Upon the Wall’s completion, this will amount to the confiscation of 90% of the land in the Jerusalem district.
The path of the Wall has been openly dictated by intentions to include settlements within the Israeli government and society. In March 2003, the Yesha Council of settlers worked with the Israeli government to extend the Wall’s path further into the West Bank south of Qalqiliya in order to bring the settlements of Ariel, Immanuel, and Qedumim into the Israeli “controlled area”. One week later, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon announced the building of the Wall in the Jordan Valley in order to “separate” the string of settlements in this region from the rest of the West Bank. Thus, the Wall will de facto annex 98% of the settler population.
9 - It is entirely unacceptable to build the Wall on the 1967 Green Line—there is a fundamental injustice in caging in an entire population. While the 1967 Green Line is advocated by the UN and many others to be the “international border” between Israel and the West Bank, the fact is that, following the 1948 war and the Zionist proclamation of the State of Israel, communities were forcibly and artificially divided into east/west by this “border”. However, the residents continue to share social services, markets, and familiar ties. To advocate that the Wall could be built on the 1967 Green Line is to legitimize the forcible separation of these communities.
10 - The Wall, as well as the Occupation itself, comprises a wide range of violations to international law. A major violation of the Apartheid Wall is the unilateral demarcation of a new border in the West Bank that amounts to effective annexation of occupied land (United Nations Charter, art. 2.4).
Furthermore, destruction for and building of the Wall has amounted to numerous more violations of the IV Geneva Convention (IV GC) including the destruction of land and/or property (art. 53) and collective punishment (art. 33).
The Wall also breaches the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966) and the International Covenant on Economical, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966), both of which Israel has signed. The rights violated include: freedom of movement (ICCPR, art. 12), property (ICCPR, art. 1,), health (ICESCR, art.12 and IV GC, art. 32), education (ICESCR, art.13, and IV GC, art. 50), work (ICESCR, art. 6), and food (ICESCR, art. 11).
Under Article 1 of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (1979) the Wall constitutes a “Crime against Humanity”. It divides populations on the basis of race and ethnicity and discrimination against residents in the West Bank to benefit illegal Israeli settlers and thus complies with the definition of “apartheid”.
These are only a few of the articles in international conventions and declarations which the Wall infringes upon. The chapter The Wall Under International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law in The Wall in Palestine: Facts, Testimonies, Analysis, and Call to Action provides more analysis and examples of the Wall under international law
2 - The Wall is being built deep within the West Bank as it zigzags throughout 10 out of the 11 West Bank districts. The Wall, on this path, de facto annexes nearly 50% of the West Bank and completely destroys all continuity of life in the region.
The Wall begins at the northern most point in the West Bank and runs through the western districts of the West Bank to the north of Jerusalem; the Wall is not being built on or near the 1967 Green Line and at points reaches 16 km (some 10 miles) deep right into the heart of the West Bank in order to annex major Israeli Jewish-only settlements. After cutting through neighborhoods and villages in East Jerusalem, the Wall picks up by Bethlehem and continues south to Hebron. In eastern West Bank, a second wall begins again in the northern West Bank and, running somewhat parallel to the first wall de facto annexes the Jordan Valley, extends south to Jerusalem where it connects with the first Wall, and thereafter stretches through the southern West Bank.
3 - The Wall takes on a variety of forms; around Qalqiliya the Wall is pure concrete eight meters (25 feet) high and fortified with armed watchtowers and in other areas it may be part concrete/part fence or a series of razor wire and/or electric fencing all of which includes a 70-100 meter (approximately 230-330 feet) “buffer zone” with trenches, roads, razor wire, cameras, and trace paths for footprints. In Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the Wall is made up of a combination of these edifices.
4 - The Israeli government began building the Wall in June 2002 in the northern West Bank districts of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Qalqiliya; at the end of July 2003, Israel announced the “completion” of this section, the so-called “first phase”, which stretches some 145 km (90 miles). However, the Israeli government continues to raze land, destroy shops, homes, and infrastructure in these areas as well as pave way for the “buffer zone”. Simultaneously, destruction for and building of the Wall has been taking place in northern Jerusalem by Qalandiya and Kafr Aqab, in the neighborhood Abu Dis in eastern Jerusalem, and around Bethlehem, Beit Sahur, and Beit Jala. The latest announcements of the Israeli government predict the completion of the Wall by 2005.
5 - At the cost of 12 million NIS or 2.8 million USD per km, the Wall is not a “temporary” measure but the continuation of Israel’s theft of Palestinian land and iron grip of Palestinian resources. The Wall, through its path which is marked by land annexation and destruction, is clearly a “tool” for the Israeli government in maximizing the confiscation of Palestinian land for future settlement expansion. The devastating reality which the Wall imposes is meant to ensure that Palestinians will be forcibly expelled from areas Israel looks to annex and “demographically contained” in other areas by creating permanent “facts on the ground” for the continued colonization of Palestine.
6 - The Wall is devastating every aspect of Palestinian life—already tens of communities have experienced the loss of land, water, and resources which provide their sustenance as well as the destruction of community and personal property. Palestinian villages and towns near the Wall have become isolated ghettos where movement in and out is limited, if not impossible, thus severing travel for work, health, education, and visits to friends and family. For instance, in the 18 communities surrounded into an enclave in the Tulkarem district the inability to travel due to the Wall and Israeli military “closures” has brought the unemployment rate up from 18% in 2000 to an estimated 78% in the spring of 2003. In Qalqiliya, where the Wall hermitically seals the city with one Israeli military controlled checkpoint, nearly 10% of the 42,000 residents have been forced to leave their homes due to the city’s imprisonment, closure of the market, and inability to find work.
7 - The notion of “access” gates where the Israeli military will “permit” Palestinians to travel to their land demonstrates the Wall’s institutionalization and follows the Israeli “permit” system which began during the 1993 Oslo Process whereby the Israeli government has been consolidating absolute control over every aspect of life in Palestine through dictating all aspects of movement.
8 - The Wall is the continuation of the Zionist/Israeli expansionist agenda of stealing Palestinian land and forcibly expelling residents—the Wall’s path equates to the de facto annexation of nearly 50% of the West Bank and almost all of the Israeli settlements.
Around Jerusalem the Wall is completing the Zionist/Israeli project of “Greater Jerusalem”, formally endorsed by the Knesset in 1997, which aims at “judaizing” and annexing East Jerusalem into a Jewish metropolitan area. The Wall closes Jerusalem off to the north and south of the West Bank, but remains “open” to the east for the still expanding settlement Ma’ale Adumim. Upon the Wall’s completion, this will amount to the confiscation of 90% of the land in the Jerusalem district.
The path of the Wall has been openly dictated by intentions to include settlements within the Israeli government and society. In March 2003, the Yesha Council of settlers worked with the Israeli government to extend the Wall’s path further into the West Bank south of Qalqiliya in order to bring the settlements of Ariel, Immanuel, and Qedumim into the Israeli “controlled area”. One week later, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon announced the building of the Wall in the Jordan Valley in order to “separate” the string of settlements in this region from the rest of the West Bank. Thus, the Wall will de facto annex 98% of the settler population.
9 - It is entirely unacceptable to build the Wall on the 1967 Green Line—there is a fundamental injustice in caging in an entire population. While the 1967 Green Line is advocated by the UN and many others to be the “international border” between Israel and the West Bank, the fact is that, following the 1948 war and the Zionist proclamation of the State of Israel, communities were forcibly and artificially divided into east/west by this “border”. However, the residents continue to share social services, markets, and familiar ties. To advocate that the Wall could be built on the 1967 Green Line is to legitimize the forcible separation of these communities.
10 - The Wall, as well as the Occupation itself, comprises a wide range of violations to international law. A major violation of the Apartheid Wall is the unilateral demarcation of a new border in the West Bank that amounts to effective annexation of occupied land (United Nations Charter, art. 2.4).
Furthermore, destruction for and building of the Wall has amounted to numerous more violations of the IV Geneva Convention (IV GC) including the destruction of land and/or property (art. 53) and collective punishment (art. 33).
The Wall also breaches the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966) and the International Covenant on Economical, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966), both of which Israel has signed. The rights violated include: freedom of movement (ICCPR, art. 12), property (ICCPR, art. 1,), health (ICESCR, art.12 and IV GC, art. 32), education (ICESCR, art.13, and IV GC, art. 50), work (ICESCR, art. 6), and food (ICESCR, art. 11).
Under Article 1 of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (1979) the Wall constitutes a “Crime against Humanity”. It divides populations on the basis of race and ethnicity and discrimination against residents in the West Bank to benefit illegal Israeli settlers and thus complies with the definition of “apartheid”.
These are only a few of the articles in international conventions and declarations which the Wall infringes upon. The chapter The Wall Under International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law in The Wall in Palestine: Facts, Testimonies, Analysis, and Call to Action provides more analysis and examples of the Wall under international law
The wall effects of Palestinian lands and people
The wall effects of Palestinian lands and people
The construction of the Israeli separation wall began on the 16th June 2002. For the most part the barrier, which could eventually extend over 750km, consists of a series of 25 foot high concrete walls, trenches, barbed wire and electrified fencing with numerous watch towers, electronic sensors, thermal imaging and video cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles, sniper towers, and roads for patrol vehicles.
The most recent map of the Wall’s path, finalized November 2003, reveals that if completed in its entirety, nearly 50% of the West Bank population will be affected by the Wall through loss of land, imprisonment into ghettos, or isolation into Israeli de facto annexed areas1 .
Israel maintains that the Wall is a temporary structure to physically separate the West Bank from Israel and thus to prevent suicide attacks on Israeli citizens. However the wall’s location, (in some places reaching up to 6km inside Palestinian territory), and projected length, (currently 750km, despite a border with Israel of less than 200km), suggest it is more realistically an additional effort to confiscate Palestinian land, facilitate further colony expansion and unilaterally redraw geopolitical borders all the while encouraging an exodus of Palestinians by denying them the ability to earn a living from their land, reach their schools or work places, access adequate water resources, or reach essential health care
The most recent map of the Wall’s path, finalized November 2003, reveals that if completed in its entirety, nearly 50% of the West Bank population will be affected by the Wall through loss of land, imprisonment into ghettos, or isolation into Israeli de facto annexed areas1 .
Israel maintains that the Wall is a temporary structure to physically separate the West Bank from Israel and thus to prevent suicide attacks on Israeli citizens. However the wall’s location, (in some places reaching up to 6km inside Palestinian territory), and projected length, (currently 750km, despite a border with Israel of less than 200km), suggest it is more realistically an additional effort to confiscate Palestinian land, facilitate further colony expansion and unilaterally redraw geopolitical borders all the while encouraging an exodus of Palestinians by denying them the ability to earn a living from their land, reach their schools or work places, access adequate water resources, or reach essential health care
The wall is having the following direct effects of Palestinian lands and people
1-Land Confiscation and destruction
The path that the wall is taking through the West Bank is resulting in massive land confiscation, de facto annexation, and destruction of cultivated lands. So far the completed section has appropriated 107 square kilometers of Palestinian land constituting 1.9% of the West Bank. If the entire wall is completed it is projected that more than 43% of the West Bank will be taken by Israel and will be located outside the wall which will serve to enclose the remaining 57% in Ghettos.
So far the fence construction has already uprooted an estimated 102,3203 Palestinian olive and citrus trees, demolished 75 acres of greenhouses and 23 miles of irrigation pipes. It now rests on 15,000 dunums of confiscated land, and its projection guarantees the confiscation of a further 120-150,000 dunums.
The Wall is only meters away from a number of small villages, or hamlets, which have been told by the military that proximity to the Wall, will render most of their community to be demolished. To date some 218 buildings have been demolished in the village of Nazlat 'Isa, the majority of which have been stores, an important source of income and survival for a number of communities; 5 homes have also been demolished for the Wall. At least an additional 75 stores, 20 factories,
So far the fence construction has already uprooted an estimated 102,3203 Palestinian olive and citrus trees, demolished 75 acres of greenhouses and 23 miles of irrigation pipes. It now rests on 15,000 dunums of confiscated land, and its projection guarantees the confiscation of a further 120-150,000 dunums.
The Wall is only meters away from a number of small villages, or hamlets, which have been told by the military that proximity to the Wall, will render most of their community to be demolished. To date some 218 buildings have been demolished in the village of Nazlat 'Isa, the majority of which have been stores, an important source of income and survival for a number of communities; 5 homes have also been demolished for the Wall. At least an additional 75 stores, 20 factories,
20 homes, and 1 primary school have demolition orders which are expected to take place in the very near future
2 - Palestinians trapped between wall and green line
Currently the wall carves off about 123,000 dunums of land from the Palestinian side of the Green Line. This land amounts to about 2% of the West Bank, and contains at least 16 Palestinian villages and 12,000 residents, according to Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups and the World Bank. This number will rise to 395,000 if all sections of the wall are completed – 17.8% of the Palestinian population.
As of the 2 October the area between the wall and the Green Line has been declared a "closed military zone” and a haphazard permit system introduced. The orders require approximately 7,000 residents in these closed areas to apply for permits to remain living in their homes. These permits are valid for up to six months and have turned a right of Palestinians to live in their own homes into a privilege. The Wall will further restrict farmers living outside this 'closed zone' from getting to their land within it. Medical staff and international humanitarian organizations also have to apply for special permits. The military orders exempt Israeli citizens and internationals of Jewish descent from these requirements
As of the 2 October the area between the wall and the Green Line has been declared a "closed military zone” and a haphazard permit system introduced. The orders require approximately 7,000 residents in these closed areas to apply for permits to remain living in their homes. These permits are valid for up to six months and have turned a right of Palestinians to live in their own homes into a privilege. The Wall will further restrict farmers living outside this 'closed zone' from getting to their land within it. Medical staff and international humanitarian organizations also have to apply for special permits. The military orders exempt Israeli citizens and internationals of Jewish descent from these requirements
3 - Palestinians separated from land, resources and family
The fence has relocated a great deal of rich farmland and water wells to the Israeli side of the wall. At least 115 Palestinian towns and villages have so far been directly affected by the wall which cuts them off from their land and resources. Of the 47 Palestinian towns and villages along phase one of the wall's route 21 are separated from more than half of their land by the fence. 36 groundwater wells and over 200 cisterns are isolated from their communities by the Wall with an additional 14 wells threatened for demolition in the Wall's "buffer zone"
4 - Implications for health and education
The wall will significantly impair access of Palestinians in isolated villages to hospitals, particularly in Tulkarem, Qalqiliya, and East Jerusalem. 71 primary health clinics will be isolated from the rest of the West Bank between the wall and the green line or in areas enclaved by the depth barrier. These clinics whilst essential providers of primary health care are not fully equipped to serve the surrounding communities. For instance they do not have delivery rooms, or specialized doctors
5 - The Jerusalem Envelope
This section of the wall has received its name because of the divisions it is creating. When complete the wall will be approximately 70 kilometers long and will cut off an estimated 249,000 Palestinian residents of Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. The route of the wall is linked with bypass roads and settlements, together forming an efficient barrier from Ramallah to Bethlehem through the neighborhood of Abu Dis, de facto annexing 5.6% of the West Bank.
Approximately 33 kilometers of the "Jerusalem envelope" have been constructed: in the north four kilometers from Kalandia checkpoint to Opher military camp in the Ramallah area, and the rest from Gilo settlement to Beit Sahur in the Bethlehem area. According to PENGON, "the northern Jerusalem Wall is isolating 15,000 Jerusalem ID holders, living in Kufr Aqab and Qalandiya Refugee Camp from the city, their familial and social ties, and public services.
To facilitate easy access for the illegal settler communities of East Jerusalem a ring road is now being built, connecting the various settlements to one another and to Jerusalem whilst encircling the Palestinian neighborhoods. More than 658 dunnums of land will be confiscated for the purpose alone, and approximately 40 Palestinian homes will be demolished, leaving the remaining residents trapped between roads and walls
Approximately 33 kilometers of the "Jerusalem envelope" have been constructed: in the north four kilometers from Kalandia checkpoint to Opher military camp in the Ramallah area, and the rest from Gilo settlement to Beit Sahur in the Bethlehem area. According to PENGON, "the northern Jerusalem Wall is isolating 15,000 Jerusalem ID holders, living in Kufr Aqab and Qalandiya Refugee Camp from the city, their familial and social ties, and public services.
To facilitate easy access for the illegal settler communities of East Jerusalem a ring road is now being built, connecting the various settlements to one another and to Jerusalem whilst encircling the Palestinian neighborhoods. More than 658 dunnums of land will be confiscated for the purpose alone, and approximately 40 Palestinian homes will be demolished, leaving the remaining residents trapped between roads and walls
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