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Israeli "agricultural" fences
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GIL SEDAN.
ewish Telegraphic Agency
erusalem
Tolerance, and the one planned for
Jerusalem.
Museum on the Seam director
Danny Shalem is fuming.
"For there to be such an institution
whose contents overlap both with our
mission and with Yad Vashem's is a
huge waste of money, and not just
during construction, but the opera-
tional costs too," he said.
"That means an ongoing, long-term
waste of money for no reason except
possibly to boost the ego of the
Wiesenthal Center, with all respect for
what they are doing. I'm not asking for
their money, but they should take it
and build something like that some-
where it is needed, like South Africa,
for instance."
Avis And Hertz
Since the Museum on the Seam
opened in September 1999, it has
worked under tight budgetary con-
straints, with no funding from either
the city or the state, supported almost
solely by the Jerusalem Foundation,
founded by former Mayor Teddy
Kollek. Shalem said he struggles to get
funding for such projects as bringing
Israeli Arab children to the museum,
or bussing in students from peripheral
towns.
But what irks him even more is that
he feels the subject matter is already
covered, with subtle differences in
focus. "As far as tolerance and race
relations are concerned, we handle
that. As far as the Holocaust, Yad
Vashem is doing a good job on a big
scale, including training and semi-
,
nars.
Hier responds: "How does Hertz
feel when Avis is coming to town?"
As to the necessity of the new cen-
ter, he said the building's magnificence
was sure to dispel any doubts. "I don't
think the State of Israel would want to
be deprived of the first project by
Frank Gehry. I think it will be one of
the most fantastic buildings ever built
in Israel.
"When people see the plan, all fair-
minded people will say this is a great
project."
Indeed, Gehry, who has been called
"a sculptor of buildings" and "Frank
the Second" — alluding to his status
as the greatest architect since Frank
Lloyd Wright — is known for his
heart-stopping use of abstract shapes
and unusual materials to create monu-
mental structures such as the
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao that
opened in 1997 and put the Basque
Spanish city on the map of world
tourism.
Some critics say Jerusalem's rich
architectural history diminishes the
need for a Gehry building; other crit-
ics suggest the city turn its attention
to its more burning problems before
building new tourist attractions.
"Perhaps we should call a temporary
moratorium on the construction of
monuments for a few years, and use
our creative energies for earthly needs
such as improved housing, transporta-
tion and maintenance," wrote the
Hdaretz newspaper's architecture crit-
ic, Esther Zandberg.
"Big projects, such as [the late]
President Mitterand's in Paris, inspire
the imagination," she continued. "But
in Paris, oh, Paris, the streets are
washed every day, the buildings stand
proud, the gardens are lovely, the
street lamps are charming, the benches
are wonderful, and only then they
turn to building a pyramid at the
Louvre."
❑
ven as attempts to save a
fragile U.S.-brokered cease-
fire continue, a "solution"
to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict is quietly being implemented.
Local councils along the Green Line
--- the pre-1967 border between Israel
and the West Bank — are building local
"agricultural security fences."
The short-term idea of the fences is to
cut down on Palestinian infiltrators. But
the fences are also part of a longer-term
idea of separation between Israel and the
Palestinians that is gaining in popularity
among disillusioned supporters of the
Oslo peace process.
The Israeli government has refrained
so far from adopting an official decision
to erect a wall along the 200-mile bor-
der, for both financial and policy rea-
sons.
But the fence building is carried out
with the silent support of the Defense
Ministry --- and its financial backing,
say local leaders.
The separation "emerges from the
field, not an orderly political decision,"
said Nahum Itzkovitz, mayor of the
regional council of Ernek Hefer, which
lies in the coastal plain. "In the absence
of such a decision, and the deteriorating
security situation," Defense Ministry
officials "prefer that the initiative is
ours," he said.
Scholars' Idea
While the idea has long been floated as a
possibility, scholars at a Jerusalem con-
ference last week presented the specifics
of a possible plan.
Israel should announce the unilateral
withdrawal from Jewish settlements in
Gaza, where some 2,200 settlers are sur-
rounded by dose to 1 million
Palestinians, said Shlomo Avineri, a
scholar who was a passionate supporter
of the Oslo accords, and who now backs
the separation idea.
Avineri, a former director general of
Israel's Foreign Ministry, believes Israel
should then implement a deal that for-
mer Prime Minister Ehud Barak pro-
posed to Palestinian Authority leader
Yasser Arafat and Arafat rejected —
transferring to the Palestinians more
than 90 percent of the territory of the
West Bank.
As far as Jerusalem goes, former
Internal Security Minister Moshe
Shahal, who seven years ago proposed
the creation of the separation line, pro-
poses that Arab neighborhoods outside
the Old City should be turned over to
the Palestinian Authority, with check-
points into Jerusalem proper.
An eastern ring road will allow
Palestinian movement from the northern
West Bank to the south without enter-
ing Jerusalem.
The tense status quo in the Old City
will be preserved, according to Shahal,
thus leaving a sore wound open.
Proponents of the plan say that while
Israel's borders would not be final, a cer-
tain truce could be achieved, such as the
quiet on Israel's current border with
Syria.
Both Israel and Syria understand that
the present line in the Golan Heights
will not be the final border between the
two countries, and yet they treat it as if
it is.
Practical Results
The fact that even political thinkers like
Avineri have joined the camp of those
who believe that Israel can no longer
wait for an agreement with the
Palestinians, but must take unilateral
separation measures, is an indication of
the depth of the ideological crisis within
the Israeli left.
Despite a growing consensus in favor
of separation, implementing the idea
indicates a reversal of policies that Israel
followed for many years.
Since Israel captured the West Bank in
the 1967 Six-Day War, tens of thou-
sands of Israelis have settled over the
Green Line — the armistice line at the
end of the 1948 War of Independence
— in effect blurring the line.
Separation undoubtedly would per-
petuate the current situation, in which
Palestinians can no longer look to Israel
as a potential work market.
Before the 1987-1993 Intifada (upris-
ing), some 120,000 Palestinians worked
in Israel, a number that is now far lower.
Shahal says international loans should
help the Palestinians create jobs within
their own territory.
Following the bloody terrorist attacks
of 1994, Shahal worked out a separation
plan that he presented to Prime Minister
EYEING SEPARATION on page 22