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This Fence is still out of Line!

For the fence – Against the Path | March 2005

Peace Now supports Israel’s right to build a security fence along the Green Line. However the actual fence continues to be constructed deep within Palestinian territory.
The current route of the fence is intended to destroy all chances of a future peace settlement with the Palestinians and to annex as much land as possible from the West Bank.
Thus the method of creating facts on the ground by annexing land to existing settlements continues, this time by using the route of the fence.

The current fence may currently save lives of Israelis but in the long run will only deepen the conflict between the two peoples. This fence will only increase the blood to be split on both sides and continue the sacrificing of Israeli and Palestinian lives for the settlements.

Despite the best efforts of the government of Israel to tar the opposition to the fence as “anti-Israeli”, it is evident that the majority of the opinion in Israel and around the world does not oppose the actual fence but its intended route.

Following international pressure the government was forced to remove several kilometers of the constructed fence; after it had already unnecessarily damaged personal property and lands of the local Palestinian population and which also cost the country several millions of dollars. So the question remains what else must happen in order that the Israeli government recognizes that continued one sided bullish attempts to annex land from the West Bank will only lead to failure?

A Number of Facts:
* The planned length of the fence is 679 km, only 300km of which is along the Green Line
* The length of the extension planned for Ariel, Emmanuel and Kedumim in 111km
* The length of the extension planned for Maale Adumim and its eastern settlements is 45km
* The cost of 1km of the fence is more than 2 million dollars
* The current route of the fence will annex de-facto around 8-10% of the West Bank land
* The current fence has mainly been build on private Palestinian lands whose owners have now been left without any means of income
* The fence has created many Palestinian cities (i.e. Kalkiliya), villages and Jerusalem neighborhoods to completely cut off and caged without any freedom of movement.