- GAZA CITY (IslamOnline.net
& News Agencies) - Israel's controversial West Bank separation wall
will lead to severe humanitarian consequences for more than 680,000 Palestinians
(30 percent), according to a new United Nations report.
-
- Conducted by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the report concluded that little consideration
appears to have been given by the Israeli government to the wall's disastrous
impact on Palestinian lives, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP), which
obtained a copy of the survey.
-
- "The damage caused by the destruction of land and
property for the wall's construction is irreversible and undermines Palestinians'
ability to ever recover even if the political situation allows conditions
to improve," said the report.
-
- "More than 400,000 other Palestinians living to
the east of the wall will need to cross it to get to their farms, jobs
and services. This means that approximately 680,000 -- 30 percent of the
Palestinian population in the West Bank - will be directly harmed by the
wall," it said.
-
- It added that some 210,000 acres (85,000 hectares) --
or 14.5 percent -- of West Bank land would lie between the path of the
barrier and the "Green Line," the internationally-recognized
boundary between Israel and the West Bank.
-
- "This land, some of the most fertile in the West
Bank, is currently the home for more than 274,000 Palestinians living in
122 villages and towns," it said.
-
- "These people will either live in closed areas --
areas between the wall and the Green Line - or in enclaves totally surrounded
by the wall.
-
- "More people, unable to reach their land to harvest
crops, graze animals or to reach work to earn the money to buy food, will
be hungryÖResidents also risk being cut off from schools, universities
and specialized medical care," it added.
-
- It said that only 11 percent of the route of the wall
conforms to the Green Line.
-
- Last month, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly
passed a resolution, demanding Tel Aviv to <http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-10/22/article01.shtml>"stop
and reserve" the construction of its separation wall.
-
- Another U.N. report showed similar condemnation of the
wall last September. The report underlined that the separation wall marked
<http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-09/30/article06.shtml>illegal
annexation of Palestinian territory and must be condemned by the world
community.
-
- The 700km-long wall will further cut occupied Jerusalem
off from the rest of the West Bank.
-
- It will eventually snake some 900 kilometers (540 miles)
along the West Bank and leave even larger swathes of its fertile territory
on the Israeli side and could cost up to $2.2 million a kilometer or a
total of $1.8 billion.
-
- The first phase of the barrier was completed in July
2003 in the northern West Bank. The defiant Israeli government of Ariel
Sharon <http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-10/01/article02.shtml>approved
last month a new 100-million-dollar section of the controversial barrier.
-
- The Palestinian Authority fears the real aim of the wall
is to dictate the borders of its promised state.
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- http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-11/12/article02.shtml
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