The Israeli Segregation Wall: An Israeli Political Agenda in the West Bank

March 2, 2008

When Israel first started with the construction of the Segregation Wall in the West Bank in June 2002, the length of the Wall was 645 km; however, the route of the Wall kept changing to meet the Israeli Army's operational plan on the ground. Accordingly the Wall�s length varied since then several time, the latest of which was in September 2007, when the latest revised Wall route published on the Israeli Ministry of Defense website. Accordingly, some 733 km square of Palestinian land became under threat of total isolation once the construction of the Wall is completed. A thorough analysis by the Geo-Informatics Department (GID) at the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem (ARIJ) illustrated that the route of the Wall is made-up of 14 sections, starting from the northeastern part of the West Bank, moving northward, then all the way southward of the Occupied West Bank Territory. See Map 1

The Israeli Segregation plan did not stop at that, but intended to slice up the isolated Palestinian lands west of the Segregation Wall even further; as the separated area where divide up into cantons, either surrounded with Wall sections, Israeli settlements or by the 1949 Armistice Line (Green Line). 

ARIJ believes that such Israeli procedures are explicit indications of a well thought, well-planned Israeli scheme to drive Palestinians entrapped behind the Wall out of their communities using infamous Israeli practices against them, restrictions on access, which consequently affect several aspects of life; education, health care, employment opportunities, and trade among others, as movement of Palestinians isolated behind the Wall toward the center of life in the major Palestinian towns and cities will be heavily restricted. Table 1 details the 14 sections behind the Israeli Segregation Wall as illustrated in the analysis by the Geo-Informatics Department (GID) at the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem (ARIJ).

Source: ARIJ GIS Database � 2008

To Conclude:-

Israel continues to manipulate the facts on the ground with regard to demography and geography, in a discriminatory manner, annexing land, break-up communities, alter the population rates particularly in occupied East Jerusalem, all of which falls in their relentless scheme to force facts on the ground to its favor, and thus influence the final status negotiation to its desires. The Israeli-made isolated cantons will cause displacement among Palestinians from their communities; who will be segregated behind the Wall at the same time consolidate the stand of the 107 Israeli settlements that fall within the scope of the Western Segregation Zone. To corroborate such plan more than 90% of construction work, plans and tenders issued by the various Israeli governmental bodies are happening inside the segregated zone, particularly in occupied East Jerusalem. Ultimately, the Israeli Segregation Wall will annex some13% of the total area of the West Bank, which contradict Israel's claim that the Segregation Wall aim to serve 'security' reasons, on the other hand, it will pave the way for Israel to mark its eastern border with the occupied West Bank territory for the first time since its establishment in 1948.

Prepared by 
The Applied Reserach Institute – Jerusalem