Israel's 'Berlin Wall' may lead to massacres<\/p>\n
Israeli bulldozers flattened ground Sunday for an electronic
\nfence that is planned to run the entire length of the West Bank
\n-- a disputed project said to be aimed at protecting Israelis
\nfrom Palestinian bombers. The Jakarta Post contributor Santi W.E.
\nSoekanto talked to Almuzammil Yusuf, director of the Jakarta-
\nbased Center for Middle East Studies (COMES) and deputy
\nsecretary-general of the Indonesian Committee for Palestinian
\nSolidarity (KISP), on the issue.<\/p>\n
Question: The fence eventually will stretch 215 miles, which is
\nthe full length of the "Green Line" -- the Israeli border before
\nIsrael captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. What are
\nthe demographical consequences of the building of the wall?<\/p>\n
Answer: As a concept, the building of the fence is not novel to
\nthe Israelis -- it does, however, run counter to their concept of
\n"Great Israel" -- which defines their territory as covering the
\nwhole Palestinian land. The establishment of this fence is
\ndisputed and some, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, have
\nobjected to it because it implies that the West Bank and Gaza
\nStrip now belong to the Palestinians.<\/p>\n
It is the Israeli's ideology that "this whole land is ours"
\nbut reality tells them that their intelligence and military
\nforces are unable to protect them from the Palestinian bombers --
\nI would not call them "suicide bombers" but "martyr bombers". The
\nbuilding of that fence is a pragmatic step supported by the
\nmajority of Israelis -- even the hardliners of Likud.<\/p>\n
The fence, however, also represents a defeat to the Israelis
\n-- they are taking this step because of the overwhelming bomber
\nattacks. The Palestinians are, on the other hand, winning a psy-
\nwar because no matter how great an oppression they are facing,
\nthey still continue their resistance. It is true that the fence
\nwould to some extent cause extra difficulty for the Palestinian
\nbombers to operate.<\/p>\n
The number of Palestinian bombers is actually bigger than
\nthose reported in the media. In fact, the Israeli Defense Force
\nlaunches arrests of potential and actual bombers every night --
\nonly the actual explosions, however, make the headlines. Israeli
\nmilitary chief Saoul Mouhfaz has described how every night his
\nmen arrest suspected bombers.<\/p>\n
But the Palestinian fighters have stated that they are not
\nafraid of dying. Their fear is to get arrested and killed before
\nthey can carry out their missions. There is in fact a very long
\nqueue of Palestinians wishing to become bombers. This is what
\nIsrael is afraid of -- they've got nuclear power, Apaches, F16,
\ntanks and are in the process of purchasing 110 fighters. They
\nonly come second after North Korea in the military-civilian
\nratio, namely 1 to 33. They've also got the support of the United
\nStates behind them -- and yet the Palestinian "martyr bombers"
\nnow frightens them.<\/p>\n
One proof is in the number of Jerusalem residents that keeps
\ndwindling over years. Why? Because of the great number of
\nIsraelis there have opted to abandon Israel and flee somewhere
\nelse.<\/p>\n
Q: In a 1982 interview, Sharon stated that the "bonus" of Lebanese
\nwar would be that the whole world would hate all Jews forcing
\nthem "to come home, fast, to install thick steel doors, to build
\na strong fence, to have submachine guns positioned at every
\ncorner of their fence here and to fight like devils against
\nanyone who dares to make a sound in this region."<\/p>\n
A: It is not happening quite like that, is it? Instead, more and
\nmore Israelis are abandoning Jerusalem. So, this fence is really
\na representation of their deepest fear. They are building this
\nbecause their fear (of the bomber attacks) has reached its peak.<\/p>\n
Q: Palestinians maintain the fence will take West Bank land they
\nwant for a state. Israelis fear the temporary "security fence"
\nwill evolve into a permanent border with a future Palestinian
\nstate. If that happened, many of the 200,000 Jewish settlers in
\nthe West Bank would be left on the Palestinian side. What do you
\nthink?<\/p>\n
A: It is true that the biggest risk that entails the building of
\nthe security fence is the fate of the Jewish settlers. But the
\nIsraeli forces in those settlements are really strong. They are
\nactually well fortressed enclaves of settlers that Palestinians
\nfind difficult to penetrate. They have checkpoints just about
\neverywhere -- so much that Palestinians wishing to avoid those
\nposts would have to climb mountainous areas to reach their
\ndestination.<\/p>\n
This "pragmatic step" however, would be followed by more
\nmassacres and more oppression of the Palestinians in the West
\nBank and Gaza Strip. This looks very much like the Berlin Wall --
\nwhere people can be electrocuted and shot at easily.<\/p>\n
Q: Sharon once described the killing of 500 Arabs as a "tiny
\nmassacre" and asked if that could even be called a massacre. What
\nkind of violence are you referring to?<\/p>\n
A: The ideology of Zionism is massacre. Remember that how former
\nIsraeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once remarked that the saddest
\nmorning for her would be one when a Palestinian baby was born.
\nThe Israelis are people who believe that they are a nation
\nwithout land who came to a land without a nation. This belief
\njustifies massacres.<\/p>\n
In fact, a June 2001 edition of the Jane's Foreign Report
\nrevealed a planned major offensive of the Israeli Defense Force
\n-- a planned deployment of 30,000 troops with a projected death
\ntoll of 3 percent in the Israeli side, and a projected death toll
\nof 40,000 Palestinians. The plan was somehow botched.<\/p>\n
Q: What is the possibility of Israeli acting out that reported plan,
\nwhen the whole world can now watch something as it is taking
\nplace and has the means to respond quickly?<\/p>\n
A: Look at Jenin. More than 500 Palestinians were killed in a
\nshort time -- children being mutilated, shot, and run through by
\ntractors. Remember the extent of violations in Jenin. What is
\nreally unfortunate is the fact that the United Nations, anyone of
\nthis world, can't visit Jenin when Sharon says no.<\/p>\n
Q: You fear the security fence would be a prelude to more massacres,
\ndespite the dispute over it. How soon do you think that could
\nhappen?<\/p>\n
A: Sharon's policies are ones that are strong in timing. Every
\nchance he's got, he would massacre Palestinians. These could be
\n"tiny", or major such as what happened in Jenin. He takes
\nadvantages of momentums of great importance.<\/p>\n
When the Sept. 11 attacks on Washington and New York took
\nplace, when the whole world was watching the U.S., he went and
\nlaunched killings of Palestinians. No one paid any attention to
\nwhat he was doing then.<\/p>\n
As for the dispute, the most that it could cause would be a
\nsnap election -- the way leadership succession has always been
\ndone in Israel. The Israelis might think that Sharon has failed
\nto give them safety, so they could proceed and elect some
\n"softer" leaders like Shimon Peres. And when they are tired of
\nsuch soft leaders, they would go out and vote for someone like
\nSharon again.<\/p>",
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