- JERUSALEM -- A hard-hitting
United Nations report has warned that Israel will effectively annex large
tracts of Palestinian territory by ordering thousands of Arabs living near
the new security wall to apply for a permit to stay in their homes.
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- The wall has been built inside the internationally recognised
Green Line, encroaching on about 18,000 acres of Palestinian land and cutting
them off from the rest of the West Bank. They have now been declared a
"closed military zone".
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- Israelis living in settlements in the zone will receive
automatic residence rights but more than 10,000 Palestinians must now apply
for permission to continue living in the 15 villages affected, fuelling
allegations that Israel is attempting to colonise or annex the area.
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- "The prohibitive effect of the permit system raises
serious concerns of effectively causing thousands of Palestinians to leave
these areas," said the report by the UN Office for Co-ordination of
Humanitarian Affairs. "These areas would be effectively annexed to
Israel."
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- The report is likely to heighten tensions between Israel
and the UN, which is viewed as instinctively anti-Israeli by the Right-wing
government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
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- David Shearer, head of OCHA, said: "We are saying
that if these people are not allowed to stay in that area, it is de facto
annexation because they cannot go back to their homes. If these people
are deprived of their homes and of their livelihoods, it will be a humanitarian
disaster." The Israeli government, which says the wall is designed
to deter Palestinian suicide bombers by sealing off the West Bank from
Israel, has regularly revised its plans for the barrier, which will now
stretch more than 400 miles.
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- About 100 mileis now complete: among the West Bank villages
affected is Ras e-Tira, which lies four miles east of the Green Line but
west of the wall. It is home to about 400 people, some of whose families
have lived in the area for centuries.
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- The village is now encircled by the fence and their land
wedged between two large Israeli settlements that are extending their boundaries.
The village has no schools or clinic and few basic amenities, forcing many
of the residents to travel beyond its limits. The travel permits they can
obtain from the military allow them only to get to the local military office:
there they must get additional permits to visit the hospital.
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- Mahir Maraabeh, an English teacher from Ras e-Tira, works
at a school in Kibla, a village that is now on the other side of the wall.
He can still get to work for now because other Palestinians opened a small
hole in the wire fencing. When this is sealed off, however, he believes
he will have to move to Kibla or face losing his job.
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- "They are trying to force us out, to migrate to
other areas," Mr Maraabeh claimed. "We have a small population
with a large area of land and they want to expand the settlements here.
If this barrier was about security then Israel could have built the wall
on the Green Line. Can you imagine anyone ordering you to leave your land
and your house?"
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- The new order on closed zones and permits is expected
to dominate talks proposed for next week with Palestinian officials by
Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli defence minister. Mr Sharon has said he would
consider meeting Ahmed Qurei if the new Palestinian premier manages to
form a permanent government.
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- The UN report has coincided with renewed debate within
Israel over the true aims of the steel and concrete security barrier. Last
week, Lt Gen Moshe Ya'alon, Israel's chief of staff, caused controversy
when he claimed that the army had recommended a less controversial route
through the West Bank.
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- During a wide-ranging critique of the government's hardline
policy towards the Palestinians, Gen Ya'alon said the military had warned
that the wall would make the lives of some Palestinians "unbearable"
and require too many soldiers to guard it.
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- The UN recently asked for £11 million to fund humanitarian
relief for Palestinians affected by the fence. As more of the wall is completed,
the bill is expected to rise sharply.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
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