On The Fence

From Kalkilya it may seem like a cage, but in
Kfar Saba, the security fence is a lifi-saver.

Editor's note: This is the first of a series on
Israel's West Bank security barrier, in con-
nection with the Feb. 23 hearing at the
International Court of justice on the fence's
legality.

DINA KRAFT
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

ci

Kalkila, West Bank
n one side there is no escaping
the wall: hulking, concrete and
towering almost 28 feet into
the sky. Where its not a wall,
the barrier is a mesh fence topped with
barbed wire and cameras, looping entire-
ly around the Palestinian city of
Kalkilya.
Just across the boundary and only a
little over a mile away, in the Israeli city
of Kfar Saba, the barrier is welcomed.
Residents of Kalkilya say it has turned
their city into a ghetto. But Kfar Saba
residents are solidly behind the wall. "I
think we need it. It's for our security,"
says Dafna Subai, walking down Kfar
Saba's main shopping street with her
family. "If the worst is that they have to
live behind a wall and the worst for us is
that we are blown up, then I say let
them live behind a wall for now."
A Palestinian woman in Kalkilya views the Israeli security fence from her porch.
The differing views of the security fence
are coming to a head as Israel and the
Palestinians prepare for a Feb. 23 hearing on the barri- snipers in Kalkilya. Several road workers were fired
resist."
er's legality at the International Court of Justice at the . upon during the highway's construction. The decision
Before the Palestinian_intzfada (uprising) broke out
Hague.
to build the wall almost 28 feet high was calculated to
in September 2000, the residents of Kfar Saba, a palm
In most places the fence hews roughly to the Green
ensure that buses would not be hit by sniper fire, says
tree-lined suburb of Tel Aviv, thronged to neighboring
Line, the armistice line from Israel's 1948 War of
Jacob Dallal, an Israeli army spokesman.
Kalkilya on weekends for humus lunches, bargain
Independence, which served as a de facto boundary
Dore Gold, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister
shopping and cheap automobile repair. But those days
until the 1967 Six-Day War. But parts of the fence are Ariel Sharon, says, "It's also important to recall that
are barely a memory at the Israeli military checkpoint
projected to bow into the West Bank, causing tension
throughout the world you have acoustic walls next to
where, until the fence was built, soldiers guarded the
between Israel and its main ally, the United States.
a highway, and they don't look much different" than
only way into and out of the Kalkilya.
The fence also is altering the delicate fabric of life
the wall near Kalkilya.
Now the checkpoint is dominated by cement blocks
that has emerged between Israelis and Palestinians
topped
with sandbags. A nearby watchtower is draped
over nearly four decades.
Continued Threat
in camouflage netting, and army trucks and jeeps
According to the Israeli army spokesman's office,
In Kalkilya, the fence looms as a physical and a practi-
whiz in and out.
five suicide bombers from Kalkilya have carried out
cal nuisance. Opposition to it is unanimous and locals
In an effort to improve the quality of life in
attacks in Israel. Among them was the bomber who
dismiss Israel's security argument, saying attacks will
Kalkilya, the Israeli army downgraded its presence at
exploded himself outside Tel Aviv's Dolphinarium
continue with or without the barrier.
the checkpoint in recent weeks. Soldiers now visit
disco in June 2001, killing 21 young Israelis. Last
"Peace has to come from within. Peace cannot be
only sporadically and Palestinians pass the checkpoint
year, a sniper circumvented the wall by crawling
established through fences and walls," says Abdullah
freely in donkey carts, trucks and on foot.
through a drainage pipe, shooting at an Israeli car
Shreem, a Kalkilya farmer who is among those whose
Jessica Montrell, who heads the Israeli human rights
traveling on-the nearby Trans-Israel Highway and
land is located on the Israeli side of the fence. "If a
group
B'Tselem, says that by opening up the entrance
killing a baby girl.
tiger is kept in a closed room, you can imagine how it
to Kalkilya, Israel is disproving its own argument
A portion of the concrete barrier that is now part of will act when it is out of its cage.
about security risks. "I think it only strengthens the
the greater fence project was built in late 2001 to pro-
"This apartheid wall only shows Israel thinks of us
argument that most of the suffering of the Palestinian
sect Israeli vehicles on the Trans-Israel Highway from
as animals — another reason for Palestinians to
population is needless and not necessarily for securi-

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