Catholic patriarch calls for dismantling of Israel's security wall

Israel's top Roman Catholic has said Bethlehem has become an "immense prison" since the West Bank barrier was built, calling for its dismantling as he joined thousands of pilgrims for midnight mass on Christmas Eve.

Rev. Michel Sabbah, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, made the comments on Saturday after leading a procession from the city to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ.

It marked the first Christmas that the town has been cut off from Jerusalem by a newly completed eight-metre-high concrete wall, part of the barrier that Israel has built between itself and the West Bank.

The pilgrims had to pass through a military checkpoint to enter Bethlehem.

"This wall must not exist. One day it will not exist," Sabbah told Israeli Radio after he passed through a military checkpoint into Bethlehem.


http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/12/24/bethlehem-051224.html

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down......

from a poem by Robert Frost

I don't see how Palestine can be a viable country with a huge wall running through it. As long as there is economic unrest, can there be peace?

you don't have your own country. The land the wall is on, and everything west of it does not belong to the Palastinians... it belongs to Isreal. If it belonged to the Palastinians, then they would be able to knock it down... and they can't.

in that the wall is being used to encircle Israeli settlements that some feel are illegal. Personally, I think the government of the area should be secular with guarantees that all religions would be protected. Interestingly enough, this sort of government would help the Christians the most, as they have the smallest group in the Holy Land.

and don't all blow up Jews. Many are trying to work with Jews to make the area a place where they can live in peace.

"You First!"

Mr. Bush, stop funding the Hamas terrorists.

Also, the US govt doesn't fund Hamas, or do you believe that the entire Palestinian population are Hamas terrorists?

Violet

I've been accused of being a member of both Hamas and Hezbollah within the past 24 hours. How lucky can one person get?

You are using the same logic as those who say the US can build any permanent military base in Iraq it wants.

This land was taken by military force. Most of it goes way inside the Green line, the internationally recognized border of Israel, and its borders before 1967. It is not belong to Israel. It would be as if the US built a wall that went into Mexico city, rather than along the border.

It destroys Palestinian communities. The wall is built on land that separates Palestinians from the land that they cultivate. It also separates Palestinians from each other. In some instances, it places many Palestinians on the same side as the Wall as most Israelis (how that could be explained as providing for Israeli security is beyond me).

The purpose of the wall is to make Palestinian lives so miserable they will leave. They will not leave. They will resist. See here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x108698

Finally, the US subsidizes Israel to the tune of $5 billion per year. This is very much a US policy issue.

You posted

That is about the same as the "tax subsidy" to Saudi Arabia through the preferential tax treatment that the oil industry receives for its tax payments to Saudi Arabia.

is throwing money into annually? Not a damned thing!

Regards

RJnAbbysNana

And we (the American taxpayers - and the American motorists) are throwing big bucks (a lot more then we throw at Israel) into the Saudi coffers. And that's just the Royals' slush fund. And, according to Crain Unger (House of Saud/House of Bush) - a chunk of that sluch fund goes right into Hamas's coffers.

the Saudis, but that's a lot easier said than done. I don't know whose hand is more deeply into the other's pocket in this scenario, but I think there's a lot more going on than the U.S. citizenry is aware of.

Regards,

RJnAbbysNana

Note: Just couldn't resist adding this little gem -

but the "composite sketches" of the people are pretty realistic.

I've only been in "the industry" for 30+ of a 40+ year career.

The question of whether they *should* is another matter. Though it does make
it easier for anyone to argue that the wall is an apartheid wall, & that Israel
is a pariah state, when the said structure is built on land that isn't part of
Israel.

Since when does the US fund Hamas? Do you have some exclusive info?

Dr. Lee Raymond (CEO of ExxonMobil) - stop funding terror - get with Prince Talal and start funding economic growth for the Palestinian - and Saudi - proletariat.

And CEO's - given the crazy tax treaty between the Saudis and the US -- we US taxpayers are funding the terrorists.

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I call on the Vatican to tear all their walls down.

Specifically I call on Israel to move the portions of their wall that's on Palestinian land.

Well, perhaps there is a budding Gandi of sorts in the I/P conflict, in the rather unlikely person of Rev. Michel Sabbah, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem.

I applaud his comments.

Peaceful protests blocking streets, sit down strikes, and other non-violent methods, they'd have a country in five years.

They're willing to die for thier cause, why are they so unwilling to go to prison for it?

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Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

This is the record, it is not a question of who or what is "worse".

I think going through history and trying to quantify who has been more oppressed or to say who are the worst oppressors is not going to solve anything. I don't think such a thing can really be quantified or compared.

It is really a foolish argument.

My point is that a) Israel does well in suppressing expressions of nonviolent resistance effectively. 2) What is crucial in nonviolent campaigns is that the protests have an impact on those in supporting countries. I think Gandhi's campaign had an effect on Britain. Certainly King's campaign had an effect on White America. However, despite the high cost of the Palestinian campaign for justice, much of the public is really unaware of its existence.

A history lesson:
Mubarak Awad, a leading proponent of non-violent protest during the first intifada, encouraged Palestinians to refuse work on Israeli settlements, boycott Israeli goods and meetings, withhold tax payments, violate curfews and establish alternative institutions to supplant the Israeli administration. In response to his efforts, which helped popularize that intifada, Israel deported him.

International activists have been deported and jailed in Israel. In some instances, killed or wounded. We know Tom Hurndall, Rachel Corrie, Brian Avery. There have been many others who have been turned away.

Many Palestinian activists have been subject to "administrative detention" in their work. Some have been tortured.

I still believe in nonviolence and that it can be effective tool of change. The worse enemy's of such work is not those who believe in armed resistance, but those in the US who are too blind to see it happening daily in Palestine. It is not only the village of Bi'lin that is doing nonviolent resistance. Every time a Palestinian student goes to class it is an act of remarkable bravery. Every time a farmer harvests his crops it is an act of affirming that the resistance lives.

Despite the widespread ignorance of the current struggle in Palestine in the US, there is hope. We see signs the facade is cracking, and more are beginning to see the reality of the situation. Churches initiating divestment is one sign. Growing movements on University campuses is another. There is much to inspire hope.

Folks may want to consider these words from Tanya Reinhart. http://tomjoad.org/ReinhartWall.htm

Rev. Sabbah and his support of efforts to end the occupation and remove the Wall. It is unlikely that Israel would deport him, as it would cause a huge amount of uproar and attention, and a spotlight of world attention would be turned on the occupation, and the land thefts and the plight of the Palestinians.

so did MLK.

It has been my experience (and others' may be different) that talking of selective boycotts actually depresses the capital market for Palestinian start ups. It's called "war risk" and "uncertainty risk" -- even with a gang busters product.

The Unitarian Universalists have a better idea -- bloc voting of their stock with other like minded shareholders.

.

Following petition filed by Azaria residents, who claimed village will be imprisoned by separation fence, court issues interim order partially halting construction works

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3191593,00.html

<snip>

"The High Court of Justice on Wednesday issued an interim order partially halting the building of the separation fence in the area between Jerusalem and the town of Maale Adumim.

The order was issued following a petition filed by the Azaria Village Council, in which residents claimed that the fence will encircle the Arab village from three sides and will thus imprison its residents and prevent the village from developing in the future.

Supreme Court President Aharon Barak and Justices Edna Arbel and Salim Jubran ruled that the State will be allowed to continue the construction of the fence on its northern and eastern parts. However, in the central part, which infiltrates the village, the works will be halted until a final ruling is given.

The eastern part of the fence passes near the access road to Maale Adumim, its northern part is parallel to Road 1, while its central part infiltrates the village and encircles the Ras Azaria hill."

An apology to Polly Mann, Women Against Military Madness and our readers

by Ed Felien
Publisher of Pulse of the Twin Cities

<snip>

Most analysts agree that the reason Sharon had to relocate the Jews that were living inside Gaza is that it became impossible to guarantee their safety. It is ironic that it was Sharon that encouraged the new settlements when he was Housing Minister and later when he was running for Prime Minister. At that time ultra Zionists believed it was possible to drive the Palestinians into the sea, and Sharon told settlers that they shouldn't build a wall because that would stop Israeli expansion. Now, the strategy has changed. They are building 25-foot concrete walls around Palestinian communities, and they need to get the Jews out before they lock the Palestinians in.

Is it true that “no Jews will be allowed to live in the future Palestinian state”? Sephardic Jews have lived in Palestine for more than 4,000 years, for the most part, peaceably. It was only with emigration of European Ashkenazi Zionist Jews that trouble began. Those Jews brought with them European notions of statehood and established a European-style nation in an Arab land. It was the Zionists that drove the Palestinians out of their homes in 1949 and 1967. It is the Jews that will not allow the Palestinians to live in Israel. Jews have always been welcome to live in Palestine, as long as they don’t claim that their land then belongs to Israel.

Fields claims Polly Mann talks about “alleged maltreatment of two Palestinian protestors.” This is a distortion of Polly Mann’s orginal statement: “On April 28, about 1,000 Palestinians and 200 Israelis participated in a demonstration against the wall. But before they could reach the wall, the demonstrators were savagely attacked by Israeli security forces. Two Palestinians demonstrators, Riad Mohamad Yassin and Alian Ibrahim Ahmad Abu Rachme, observed several people they assumed to be Arabs throwing stones at the Israeli troops. When the Palestinian demonstrators asked the rock-throwers to desist they discovered that the rock-throwers were Israeli soldiers disguised as Arabs. The Israeli security forces then arrested,-not the undercover soldiers, but Riad Mohamad Yassin and Alian Ibrahim Ahmad Abu Rachme, for ‘assaulting a service provider.’”

Mann's point is that the Israeli army was using agent provocateurs to provoke incidents that justified the Israeli army's use of violent counter-measures, a common tactic of bullies and repressive regimes.

Fields objects to Mann’s use of the term ‘apartheid wall’ (them’s fightin’ words) to describe the enclosure Israel has built around Palestinian communities. The wall around the city of Qalquillya, population 100,000, is 25-feet tall with a single gate opened at the whim of Israeli security forces. The only comparison that comes close to describing this wall would be the Warsaw Ghetto, and this is not a comparison unique to Arabs or American leftists. British Labour MP Ms. King, who is Jewish, said Gaza was “the same in nature” as the infamous Polish ghetto. “No government should be behaving like that—least of all a Jewish government.”

continued here..........

http://www.pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=2040

Sharon 'sees wall as Israel's new border'

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Published: 02 December 2005


A senior ally of Ariel Sharon has given the most explicit indication yet that the Israeli Prime Minister envisages the 425-mile separation barrier as the border between Israel and a future Palestinian state.

Government spokesmen frequently claim that the barrier was built solely for security reasons and could be removed or rerouted.

But the Justice Minister, Tzipi Livni, who is helping prepare the programme of Mr Sharon's new Kadima party, told a legal conference in Caesarea: "One does not have to be a genius to see that the fence will have implications for the future border. This is not the reason it was built, but it could have political implications."

The Palestinian leadership said this was evidence that the barrier, which puts 8 per cent of the West Bank, including the major settlement blocs, on the Israeli side, was an effort to pre-empt free negotiations on any final peace deal.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said: "This is a very dangerous development and undermines the chances of permanent status negotiations. This proves Israel wants to dictate and not negotiate."

But leaders of Likud, the main hard-right party badly weakened by the desertion of Mr Sharon, are likely to attack the remarks as implying that the Prime Minister is ready to concede up to 90 per cent of the West Bank, including the settlements east of the barrier, unilaterally or in negotiations with the Palestinians.

cont..........

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/ar...

Now tell me how there can be a viable Palestinian state with this wall chopping up the land mass, (which actually belongs to the Palestinians, incidentally), and virtually imprisoning Palestinians living in various villages because of the "Jews only" roads being the only route/s of "escape."

Crying in the Wilderness
Voices from Behind the Entombment Wall
By WILLIAM A. COOK
October 12, 2005


"Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself." (1984, George Orwell)

Orwell wrote 1984 immediately following World War II and published it in 1949. He had the model for its reality readily at hand, indeed, the above wording paraphrases the words of Hitler as he calculated how to make the "Party" the controlling force in his fascist world. He implemented his world with walls, identity cards, tattoos, laws, internment, torture, and forcepain, humiliation, fear, and torment wrought by treachery.

I stood with a group of colleagues surveying this strange, surreal scene -- the narrow stone and gravel road butted against the chain-linked fence topped with rolls of barbed wire, sixty yards of bulldozed land, stripped now of its trees and plants, turned into a virtual private highway for IDF forces, enclosing electrified fencing, blocking access to farm land and groves, a wall of fencing that carved miles upon miles of land out of this small town north west of Jerusalem encircling settlements recently constructed in this Palestinian land ­ haunted by the realization that this wall, this entombment wall, had been condemned as illegal by the International Court of Justice, that the United Nations had upheld that ruling with a resolution condemning the wall, and understanding that it violated the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, only to see it flare out in both directions as it snaked over and around the hills and valleys as far as the eye could see. I stood marveling at the minds of humans who could design such an instrument of torture that confiscates in its steel and cement reality 58% of the West Bank (www.pchrgaza.org/files/Reports/English/sharon.htm, 5/11/05).

I stood there and realized, that despite the action of the ICJ and the UN, the wall existed, a defiant and colossal villainy perpetrated against the world communities, done with a blandness of arrogance that Donald Rumsfeld could appreciate, even as the state of Israel seeks a seat on the United Nations Security Council (Daily Times, Pakistan, 5/6/05), a body that it obviously rejects with aloof contempt and finds irrelevant.

At that moment, a group of children appeared, some on bikes, others running beside them, coming down that beat-up road toward the fence. An engineer, our interpreter for this visit, spoke to them. They immediately fanned out over the road in front of the fence looking intently for something ­ that thing was a rock on which blood stains were still visible, blood stains from a brother of one of the kids who had been shot at that place not long before. He still lived, recovering as we spoke. But they wanted to show us one of their homes back up the road and to the left, a home that sat on land that now bordered the fence, much of their land annexed for the fence. The family had just received a notice that they must pull down their sheds and out buildings because they were too close to the fence, buildings that had housed chickens, turkeys, goats, sheep, and cows since the '50s, buildings that were constructed of bits and pieces of tin and boards, weathered, scarred remnants scavenged from the debris that lay everywhere in sight. But if they moved the buildings, where do they house the animals; whose land do they annex?

And so we gathered there on that rise that looked out over the fence that abutted a shanty that came too close to a fence recently completed by the IDF that had 60 yards of stripped roadway and fence to protect from the chickens and donkeys. The absurdity of the situation could not cloak the sense of desperation on the face of the owner or hide the anger that swelled in the chest of his worker and friend as they sat under a tree, the only protection from the blistering sun, talking to us, asking in wonderment why they were responsible for the closeness of the fence; why those with such power should want to destroy a family with 11 children; why, when they had taken so much of their land already, would they force them to tear down the only protection they had and lose the only land they had to shelter their animals and feed their family? Why? What had they done to the Israelis?

continued here..........

http://www.counterpunch.org/cook10122005.html