Illegal Wall snaking through Palestinian land

Saturday, October 20th, MPT joined an Italian Pax Christi delegation of Assopace [new peace activist group] in a tour along the north Apartheid Wall in Bethlehem. Samir, our Palestinian guide, was a man in his early thirties who had spent six years in an Israeli prison beginning at the age of fifteen. Today he leads nonviolence trainings around the West Bank. His family now lives in the Bethlehem area, since their land in East Jerusalem land of his family was confiscated by the Israelis.

Construction on this part of the illegal Apartheid Wall began in 2000 and was completed in 2005. However, other sections continue to be built. Northern Bethlehem, historically a Christian area through which tourists must pass to enter Bethlehem, had once been a lively restaurant and business district. However, due to the presence of the wall, from 2002 to 2004 the number of businesses dropped from 80 to 8.* Tourism declined from an average of 91,726 persons monthly to 7,249 between 2000 and 2004.**

Although the Israeli government cites “security” as the reason for the 25-foot concrete barrier, it is quite obvious to the Palestinian population of Bethlehem that land confiscation is actually the primary motivation. Part of wall that snakes across the area annexes Bethlehem land on which stands a rabbinical school and a military installation. Another section of the wall has also been used to confiscate beautiful thriving olive groves that belonged to a U.S. Catholic religious order that had held reconciliation workshops for Palestinians and Israeli youth in their buildings.

Next we moved to Aida, a large and very poor refugee camp right next to the wall. The U.N. school holds two sessions daily to accommodate the children from the very crowded area. 7,000 people live in one sixth of a square mile. Because the site is so close to the wall, this camp reports the largest number of injuries to children by soldiers. 
 

The settler-by-pass road passes through tunnels

Our group continued to follow the wall around into Beit Jala, an ancient Christian section of Bethlehem that boasts a 3000-year-old olive tree. The olive oil from Beit Jala is both famous and expensive. We passed under a lengthy bridge build in 1990 as part of an Israeli-only by-pass road on which Israelis can drive directly from Jerusalem to the illegal Gilo settlement, west of Bethlehem, without ever having to encounter a Palestinian.

On the land beneath the bridge, we spoke with a Palestinian farmer whose family has cultivated olives on that land they have owned for generations. The farmer, who spoke Arabic, English and Spanish, showed us the damage that the bridge building had caused his land and his trees– water channels blocked, terraces destroyed, and 150 ancient olive trees olive trees uprooted – a seeming lack of respect for nature. He told us that last year, Israeli soldiers did not allow his family to harvest their olives, since their land had been officially annexed to Jerusalem settlements by Israel. The farmer said that peace negotiations – the Oslo Accords – were used by the Israelis to continue confiscating land and building settlements. Construction of a massive system of 29 highways and by-pass roads, funded by the US at the cost of $3 billion, was begun only at the start of the Oslo “peace processes.” ***

Further up the road, we visited the ruins of a beautiful $1 million villa that had been built by American- Palestinians in 2000. In 2001, the Israeli military shelled the villa, completely destroying the not-yet-finished home, because of “security reasons” – the home was directly across the hill from illegal Israeli settlements. On the road below the villa, we saw the tunnels for the settler-by- pass road, which had destroyed the bases of many homes. The wall continues to be built to protect the road and to confiscate more land.
 

Well-kept terraces

Our last site for the trip along the wall was the Italian monastery of Cremisan, in a picturesque Tuscany-type area only a short distance from military watchtowers, checkpoints, and the towering concrete Apartheid wall. The Palestinian vineyard workers from the town of Beit Jala and the Italian Salesian priests have made their famous wine since 1885. In 2006, Israel began work to extend its “security barrier” here, on a route that will cut off Cremisan – and its winery – from Beit Jala and the rest of the West Bank. Again, while Israel says that the "security barrier" is solely a tool to keep out suicide bombers, it is obvious to Palestinians and to all who view it that the goal of the wall is annexation.

The Salesian priest told us that Salesians and the Vatican have negotiated with Israel. The Israeli Supreme Court judges ordered part of the wall to be torn down. But future predictions are that the wall, designed to shield the Israeli settlements of Gilo and Har Gilo – home to almost 30,000 Israeli civilians living on occupied Palestinian land – will continue to be constructed, and eventually the monastery area will be completely confiscated by Israel. But should the monastery be left in church hands, the wall will prevent the 25 Palestinian workers from getting to their jobs. ****

*        [Costs of conflict:  The changing Face of Bethlehem, UNSCO report, December 2004, p. 12.] 

**       [ibid.]

***      [ Halper, Jeff.  “A Most Generous Offer,  How Long, O Lord?   Crowley Publications.  2002, p. 115]

****     www.telegraph.co.uk/news  07/07/2006