Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Tearing down the wall

Palestine based activist | 06.08.2003 09:48 | Anti-militarism | Palestine | Repression | London

Update 8.8:The last protester detained has now been released. See also anaylsis and editorial for August 7 on IMC-Israel

Latest from IMC-Israel, 6.8.: 1 2

Breaking news 5.8.2003: Indymedia Israel reports 45 detained,3 arrested in protests in Mas'ha against seperation wall.

For a year now, Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists have been calling attention to the building of the Separation Wall by Israel in Palestinian areas. Although it is the most acute threat to Palestinians getting bigger as we speak, the US sponsored Road Map to peace nor the corporate media paid attention to their pleas. But, this month it seems that finally the world is starting to listen. Dozens of pictures on the mainstream newswires and heated debates on Indymedia UK, and yes, protests too!



the wall
the wall


One of the interesting things about living in Palestine is that events in your home town and those of your friends are daily world news. Coming from a country whose one-off national disasters hardly make global headlines, it is somewhat disorientating to see the demonstration you just passed by on the way to work within the hour on Al-Jazeera and every quaff between the president and prime minister top story on Yahoo.Com.

But what is really interesting, is how little global news actually reflects what is here. And no, I am not talking about representation of marginalised points of view, pro-Israeli bias or any of those touchy-feely media activist things. With daily reports in most national news papers and tv channels around the world and the largest permanent presence of foreign desk journalists, for months photographers and writers managed to miss what is everybody's personal top story here, even if they only spend half a day in Palestine.
It's the Wall, stupid!
Reality!
In June 2002, the Israeli government decided to build what it calls a "separation barrier" between Israel and the West Bank to "prevent the uncontrolled entry of Palestinians into Israel". The government’s decision called for construction of a barrier around the entire West Bank. The western part of the wall, known as "stage 1 and stage 2", is already under construction. The Ministry of Defense has not yet completed its planning for "stage 3". However, the route of the eastern section of stage 2 suggests that Israel intends to extend the barrier southward, thus separating the Jordan Valley from the rest of the West Bank (B'Tselem, Israeli human rights organisation). What started out as a small project of the Israeli military is turning into a state-supported annexation of almost 30 percent of the West Bank to Israel.

In Palestine today, you see cement walls, barbed wire and electric fences in various stages of construction everywhere you travel. They separate farmers from their lands, villages from their urban centers and people from their families. The speed at which, and the places where they appear are seriously alarming. While the global story on Kalandia checkpoint (the main exit of Ramallah) is that it might be opened as part of Israel's "limited withdrawal" from the West Bank, the people waiting to pass see that from one day to the next engineers put together a much more permanent checkpoint construction and the omnious cleared path of land approaching from the horizon has neatly reached the checkpoint's fences. Someone commented to me that he fears it will become another "Eretz", the prison-like enterance to the Gaza Strip.

The activists shout "South Africa!", "Bantustans!". The Palestinians "If they want a security wall, why don't they build it on their land?", and "They are crushing any chances for a Palestinian state". But for months there was no reporter to record their sound bites.

(Detail: The person who commented on Eretz is a photographer for Associated Press, who has spent the last weeks taking pictures of Palestinian policemen reclaiming Palestinian streets as part of "The Road Map". Which to him was welcoming relief after months of photo-ops of Arafat and Abbas hugging various heads of state and donor agencies.)
News!
But things change. Last week Reuters sent one of their top-photographers to shoot what every visitor to Palestine already has in her or his scrap book for months: the four-metre high cement blocks in Qalqilia. In the race for the commodity called news, AP and others could not but follow and now when you type "Wall" or "Qalqilia" into the News Photo search of Yahoo, you get dozens of pictures. It is no top story yet, but hey, it is difficult to beat the burial of Odai and Qusai.

In case a Reuters or AP writer feels like putting some words to the pictures, or Bush's advisers decide to add some relevance to the Road Map, here are some things to think about - lessons learned from confused Indymedia debates and yes, biased reporting:
  • "One of the government's primary considerations was inclusion of as many settlements as possible west of the barrier in order to increase the likelihood of their annexation into Israel. The authorities also determined the route of the barrier in a manner that would avoid the political problems resulting from recognition of the Green Line as the border of Israel. In one of the areas, the route was changed due to pressure by residents of the Israeli town of Matan, who demanded separation between Qalqiliya and Habla, a village south of Qalqiliya, in order to safeguard their "quality of life." In other areas, it was decided to move the barrier eastward to prevent damage to sites containing antiquities. In the area of Bethlehem, the authorities decided to erect the barrier within the city to ensure Jewish worshipers free access to Rachel's tomb." (B'Tselem Position Paper)
  • No, "the Wall" is not a four-metre high cement block wall everywhere. It is also electric fences, three-metre deep ditches and piles of barbed wire. What it will look like when finished is anybody's guess, but you know what: THIS IS NOT IMPORTANT. It is a _separation barrier_, with watchtowers every twenty or so metres; checkpoints and roadblocks; private construction security personel and settlers who prohibit Palestinians from going through the gates designated to them by the military; etc. The wall, barier, fence or whatever you want to call it, is built to lock Palestinians in and it will. THIS IS IMPORTANT.
  • The International Solidarity Movement is organising a summer campaign of actions against the Wall. It has already been properly opened by farmers tearing down a gate to their land and a Palestinian activist jumping the fence in front of bewildered Israeli soldiers.
  • If you like UK angles, maybe follow these leads:
    On July 12, Manchester shoppers came face to face with Apartheid West Bank style when over 200 local activists built their own cardboard box wall across Albert Square. Full report | video | photos
    Oxford Street Intifada
  • Leila Sansour and Jeremy Hardy are on tour with her film "Jeremy Hardy v. the Israeli Army", about Hardy and ISM's activities in Palestine.

  • In autumn DAM, Palestinian hip-hop act will tour the UK to raise awarness.

Palestine based activist

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. food for thought — add-it
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech