The Apartheid Wall’s Location and Costs
In November 2000 Israeli Prime Minister Barak (Labour Party) approved the first project to build a “barrier”. Construction of the Wall, including land confiscation and the uprooting of trees, began in June 2002 west of Jenin.
As of summer 2010, 520 km of the planned 810 km, or 64%, had been completed. Wall construction was slow for most of 2010 as a result of worries about the financial crisis and ongoing court cases. Instead of building new portions of the Wall, work focused on modifications in the areas of Bil’in, Jayyus and around Jerusalem.
In the latter half of 2010, there was renewed work in Jerusalem where the focus was on closing gaps in certain areas. In Bethlehem, Wall construction has restarted in al Walaja village, where the village will be surrounded on all sides. Work is also ongoing in Beit Jala, where the Wall is being built along a settler road.
The Jordan Valley remains almost completely isolated from the rest of the West Bank as a closed military zone.
According to Israeli military officials, the Wall’s total length will be some 810 km. The cost of the Wall is now estimated at $2.1 billion, and each km costs approximately $2 million. In addition, the Occupation has spent 2 billion shekels to construct alternative roads and tunnels.
The Wall has destroyed a large amount of Palestinian farmland and usurped water supplies, including the biggest aquifer in the West Bank. 78 Palestinian villages and communities with a total population of 266,442 will be isolated as follows:
- Villages surrounded by Wall, settlements and settler roads - 257,265 Palestinians.
- Villages isolated between Wall and Green Line - 8,557 Palestinians
- Villages isolated and residents threatened with expulsion - 6,314 Palestinians.
The so-called “disengagement”, “modifications”, “convergence” and “development” are all part of the Israeli rhetoric that hides the overall strategy for the complete colonization of the West Bank and the expulsion or enslavement of the Palestinian population.
The “modification” of the path of the Wall, far from being a benefit for the local population, often only returns a fraction of what was stolen. It also serves to distract from the ICJ ruling, which calls for the dismantling of the Wall, not the rerouting of small sections. In addition, these modifications often ensure that the lands that remain isolated behind the Wall cannot be accessed by their owners, effectively annexing them. Instead of dismantling settlements, the Occupation continues to expand them, in particular those located around Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
- Source: https://stopthewall.org/the-wall