Walls and Checkpoints: The Nightmare Comes True:

Uri Avnery: Walls and Checkpoints: The Nightmare Comes True:

This is only one example of what is happening now all over the West Bank, turning it into a crazy quilt of walled-in enclaves, "connected" by bridges, tunnels or special roads, which can be cut off at any moment at the whim of the Israeli government or of a local army officer--and, all around them, roads-for-Israelis-only...
http://www.counterpunch.com/avnery06142004.html

"I thought it was terrible. I was wrong. It is far, far worse!--These words sum up my feelings at that moment.

I was standing on a hill overlooking the infamous Kalandia checkpoint.

Below me was a narrow road, packed with Palestinians in the blazing sun, 30 degrees centigrade in the shade (but there was no shade) trudging towards the checkpoint. Very soon this road will be transformed. It will be widened to three lanes and be reserved for Israelis: on both sides of it, 8-meter high walls will spring up. It will allow the settlers of the Jordan valley to reach Tel-Aviv in about an hour. The Palestinians living on either side will be cut off from each other.

This is a small part of the new reality that is rapidly being created on the West Bank and that is changing the country we knew and loved beyond recognition.

I was standing near the edge of a-Ram. Once this was a small village on the outskirts of Jerusalem, on the road north to Ramallah. Since successive Israeli governments have prevented the Palestinians in East Jerusalem from building new homes, the severe overcrowding has forced a mass exodus to a-Ram, which has grown into a town of 60 thousand inhabitants. Most of them are officially still Jerusalem residents, carrying the blue identity cards of inhabitants of Israel. This allows them to come to Jerusalem, a drive of 10 minutes, work there, tend to their businesses, go to the hospitals and the universities there.

This is about to stop. Along the age-old road from Jerusalem to Ramallah (leading on to Nablus, Damascus and beyond) construction of the 8-meter wall is due to start any minute now--not across the road, but along the middle of the road, the full length of it. The inhabitants of a-Ram, east of the wall, will not only be completely cut off from Jerusalem, but also from all the townships and villages to their west--their relatives, the schools which thousands of their children attend, their cemetery and their places of work. A small part of a-Ram remains outside the wall and will be cut off from the main part of the town in which they live.

But this is only part of the story. Because the wall (or in some places a barrier, consisting of a fence, trenches and roads) will completely surround a-Ram from all sides. The sole exit from this walled-in area will be a narrow bridge connecting it with the adjacent area to its east, consisting of several Palestinian villages, which will be surrounded by another barrier. This enclave will have a narrow exit to the Ramallah enclave. Through this it will be possible for a person from a-Ram to reach Ramallah, God willing, by a roundabout route of some 30 kilometers, instead of the ten minutes or so it took before the occupation." (more)

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

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

"All aid will cease until it is done".

That's all it would take.

I already checked on my Senator, Barbara Boxer and she is getting tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from political groups called "Pro-Israel" and "Women for Israel"

donation information is available at http://www.opensecrets.org

The last time I checked the site, Senator Levin of Michigan was receiving the most "Pro-Israel" donations.

I didn't look up all the politicians yet, but haven't seen any Pro-Israel money going to Repugs.

At some point, though, politicans are going to have to come to
grips with the situation, as sympathy for Israel wanes all over
the world. It's not only a matter of what's right and fair, but
it's all too easy to see how the anger will keep building all over
the Arab world, with repercussions for all of us.