One wall down, one to go

By Patrick Hitchon

Last month, we commemorated the 20th anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall. The wall was built in 1961 to prevent the mass exodus from the Communist German Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany.

President Ronald Reagan had called for the dismantling of the wall in 1987 in his memorable speech, saying “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

Today the world and our government complain in silence about the Israeli Wall of Partition, or as it is known in the Middle East, the Wall of Territorial Theft. This wall as approved by the Israeli government will stretch for 436 miles and will be 24 feet tall - four times as long and twice as high as the Berlin Wall. In some places, it has 300-foot buffer zones, trenches, barbed wire, electric fences and towers at regular intervals.

This wall does not follow the U.N. partition lines outlined in Resolution 181 of Nov. 29, 1947, or Green Line of 1967 between Israel and Palestine. Instead, it includes illegally built settlements, and intrudes six to seven kilometers into Palestinian territory, carving off another 10 percent of the West Bank.

On Oct. 21, 2003, an emergency session of the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved resolution 10179, demanding that Israel stop and reverse construction of the wall being built in the West Bank. Voting against were the Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands and United States.

The text expressed particular concern that the route marked out for the wall in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, could make the two-state solution physically impossible to implement and would cause further humanitarian hardship to the Palestinians.

On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice voted 14-1 that this wall “built by Israel is contrary to international law” and that “Israel cease construction of the wall built in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and to dismantle the structure.” Also, “Israel is under an obligation to make reparation for all damage caused by the construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Judges from all over the world recognized the criminality and illegality of the wall, except the lone objector, the American judge.

Today, 210,000 Palestinians living along the route in 67 villages and towns suffer the consequences of the wall. Families are separated from each other, and farmers isolated from their land. Palestinians living in this seam zone require special permission to reside in their homes or cross into the West Bank. Of course, Israelis are excluded from these restrictions.

Like the 230 illegal settlements built before it, the wall was built on the pretext of “security.” Israel now expands the settlements claiming expansion is to meet “natural growth.”

Our administration should condemn the wall. We should support U.N. Security Council Resolution 446 affirming the illegality of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory, and that Israel should desist from transferring its own civilian population into the occupied Arab Territories.

In accordance with U.N. Resolution 194, we should demand repatriation and compensation of the 4 million Palestinian refugees expelled by Israel, and living in U.N.-supported camps throughout the Middle East.

Until U.N. resolutions are enforced, there will be no peace in the Middle East. The world is tired of road maps, agreements and accords that lead nowhere. If the United Nations was good enough to create Israel with Resolution 181, then we should enforce all U.N. resolutions.

Patrick W. Hitchon of Iowa City is professor of neurosurgery and bioengineering at the University of Iowa. He says that as a result of Palestinian expulsion by Israel, he was born in Amman, Jordan. He grew up in Beirut, Lebanon, and is now a U.S. citizen.