The West Bank Wall is a separation barrier built by Israel along the Green Line in the West Bank.The West Bank is a land that lies on the eastern side of Israel. It is bordered by the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.The Israelis took control of the land in 1967. The West Bank is landlocked, and it is split into multiple Palestinian islands and Israeli settlements. The Israeli West Bank Wall is a separation made by the Israeli government to prevent Palestinian terrorists from causing disturbances inside the country.This barrier has been the subject of a lot of scrutiny for several reasons. Many human rights members and groups like the United Nations consider this racial segregation, preventing people from freely moving in the West Bank. However, the Israeli government argues that the number of terrorist attacks since building the wall has reduced considerably.There are about 3 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank, and right now, these Palestinian residents are under the rule of a strict Israeli administration. There are also about 500,000 Jews (people originating from Israel) who live in the West Bank. This West Bank barrier has a lot of negative effects on the lives of the Palestinians and cuts their access to several essential services.Composition Of West Bank WallThe West Bank Wall was built by the government of Israel after the terrorist attacks of 2000. Here are some major facts about the composition of the wall.The route of the wall runs along the Green Line and the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. It bypasses or encircles the Palestinian towns in the area. It is to be noted that just 12% are Israeli-occupied West Bank areas. The rest are all Palestinian territory.Most of the wall is made up of a fence system in three layers. The first two fences have barbed wire, and the innermost fence is made of a lighter-weight fence. The wall runs a total length of 440 mi (708 km).About 15% of the wall runs along the Green Line, inside Israel, and the remaining part lies in the West Bank. This wall is about twice the length of the original Green Line.The Green Line is a demarcation line that was laid in 1949 to separate Israel from its neighbors like Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon.The wall is about 26 ft (7.92 m) in height, and that is two times the height of the famous Berlin Wall.The wall is made of concrete in some places, and there is a buffer zone between the fences for the military to patrol and other security tasks to be performed. This buffer zone is, on average, between 100-300 ft (30.48-91.44 m) in width. The concrete wall is surrounded by surveillance cameras on the Israeli side, and there is fine sand laid on the buffer zone to capture footprints. The separation fence is also surrounded by two types of roads: a dirt road for military vehicles and a paved road for the border force.Some of the parts of the separation wall are built on raised terrain. The wall has watchtowers that the border force uses to monitor movements. The Trans-Israel Highway is an essential highway in Israel that lies almost on the Green Line in a few places. This highway is a controlled-access road and is constantly monitored.Timeline Of The West Bank WallBefore you read about how the apartheid wall has affected the people in the West Bank, you should understand the timeline in which the process happened.Intifada is a word that means uprising. The Palestinian Intifada is the Palestinian uprising against Israel. The first intifada happened in 1987, when there were a series of riots and threats in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.This lasted for about five years, then the second intifada happened. This took place in 2000, after the failure of the 2000 Camp David Summit. These riots and attacks happened for four whole years on Israeli land, until 2005.The following timeline will give you more insight into this.1992: The first idea behind creating a security fence was put forward by the then Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin. He proposed this following the death of an Israeli teenager in Jerusalem.1994: A series of violent outbreaks in Gaza strengthened the idea of building a wall. The Gaza strip is on Palestinian land and borders Israel on the east and north. The Gaza Strip lies to the east of the Mediterranean Sea. This is usually a high-voltage area for terrorism.The Prime Minister of Israel then started outright claims of wanting a separation between the Israeli and the people of the Palestinian territory. About 98% of the Jews lived in Israel, and he claimed that he wanted them protected. The first part of the Israeli wall was built for a few miles using slabs of concrete.2000: This was the time of the peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine that happened in Washington. The then Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, approved a decision to build a 46 mi (74 km) separation wall between the regions of Latrun and Wadi Ara.2002: In 2001, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came to power, and he decided to create a permanent barrier in a place called the Seam Area. The Seam Area is a closed area in the West Bank with a majority of Israeli occupation. In June 2002, the Israeli government approved the plan to build the wall.2003: In just a year’s time, the government turned slack and did not concentrate much on the wall. As a result, many local Israeli citizens and bodies took up the work themselves and started building the wall.2004: In the year 2004, almost 112 mi (180 km) of the wall was already built.2005: Due to mounting pressure from the United Nations, the United States, and other countries, the civil administration of Israel made two decisions: the length of the route was increased to 416 mi (669 km), which was twice the distance of the Green Line. It also decided to remove its army from the Gaza Strip. This process was termed the Gaza Disengagement.In 2005, the Israeli Supreme Court backed its decision to complete the wall, saying its people had been struggling with terrorism for a very long time and the wall was needed to protect them. By this time, 130 mi (209 km) of the wall were already built.2006: The government kept changing the route, leaving Palestinian towns and villages outside the fence. It further added 68 mi (110 km) to the original plan, making the barrier pass through Jewish settlements and east Jerusalem.2012: The process of changing routes kept happening. The route is planned to include most of the Jewish settlements, including east Jerusalem, inside the safety of the wall, excluding the Palestinian territory. In 2012, about 273 mi (439 km) of the wall was already built. This was more than 60% of the route completed.As of date: As of date, the debate on how to proceed after this remains. Human rights groups are constantly interfering and trying to negotiate with Israel, asking them to consider the livelihoods of the Palestinians living in these closed areas.Effectiveness Of West Bank WallAccording to the Israeli government, the wall and the constant monitoring of the Israeli army have brought about many positive changes in the situation. Some of these are mentioned below.In places where the wall has been completely built, the number of attacks has gone down considerably. Israeli officials state that compared to 2003, the number of terrorist attacks in 2006 had reduced considerably. Before the building of the wall, the number of attacks was 73. By 2006, this number had gone down to 12.These officials are also of the opinion that attacks have almost stopped in places where Israel has occupied the West Bank and completed the construction of the fence. It is true that the wall makes it difficult for the Palestinian terrorists to make surprise attacks on the Jews.However, some other Israeli authorities believe that the wall cannot be fully responsible for the halt in terrorist activities. They feel that the Israeli Defense Force has penetrated the West Bank and is actively chasing the terrorist groups. This is also one reason why the number of suicide bombers has gone down.According to the United Nations, it was illegal to build a barrier like this as it deviates greatly from the Green Line. The UN passed a resolution, asking the government to act according to international law. However, the government merely submitted a written statement and continues to build the wall to this day.Impact On PalestiniansWhile the border barrier has managed to bring down terrorist activities, it has definitely affected the lives of about 500,000 Palestinian population, many of whom live near the border with Israel.The first problem was the loss of land. In many parts, the wall was built on the lands of Palestinian landowners, forcing land confiscation in most cases.In 2003, the Israeli Defense Force demolished about 178 shops in the Palestine-occupied territory, claiming they wanted to build a wall. About seven homes of Palestinian people were also demolished for the same purpose.In the southern West Bank, the West Bank Wall runs along with Bethlehem up to the south of East Jerusalem in both the east and west. This leaves only 13% of the land in the Bethlehem district for Palestinian use.In both the towns of Bethlehem and Hebron, concrete walls surround the main holy sites. The Wall further threatens the primary source of livelihood for the people in the area - cattle rearing.The Israeli cabinet built a wall that cut off the Jordan Valley from the West Bank. As a result, the Palestinian land farmers lost access to the Jordan River. The international court says that the Israeli side already has control over the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, which will hurt the Palestinian farmers. Since farming is the primary source of income for many Palestinians, the inability to move freely and sell their products will hinder their livelihood.Freedom is the birthright of everyone in the world. Thanks to the wall, the Palestinians inside the West Bank will have to give up their freedom. They were unable to move freely within the West Bank due to the wall’s haphazard route.When the wall was built, these people from the Palestinian territory could not go to hospitals or educational institutions located on the Israeli side of the wall. Research states that once the wall is completely built, about one-third of the people from the Palestinian land inside the West Bank will not have access to quality healthcare.The International Court of Justice found that building this wall was contrary to international law, and Israel was asked to cease the construction of the wall in the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem. Many Israeli civilians, especially those who are part of the Human Rights Organization, feel that the wall that restricts the Palestinian territory will impact the lives of millions of innocent civilians.The municipal boundaries of a place, according to international law, determine the actions and assistance provided by the local government to its citizens. Because of the constantly changing route of the wall by the Israeli government, the Palestinians have a problem participating in and benefiting from the developmental activities in the West Bank.The Shu’fat refugee camp is a refugee camp for Palestinians that is located outside the West Bank barrier of Israel. In fact, this is the only refugee camp in Jerusalem within Israeli settlements.The future border, when built, will stop the Palestinians from accessing some of the most fertile parts of the West Bank, and this is something the Palestine-occupied West Bank civilians are worried about.There are cases that the Israeli Supreme Court handles regularly challenging the building of the wall. In 2005, the Supreme Court agreed to relax Israeli military activities on some of the borders, allowing Palestinians to freely move between five villages in the Palestinian territory. However, it keeps squashing cases that ask for the building of the wall to be stopped.
The West Bank Wall is a separation barrier built by Israel along the Green Line in the West Bank.
