Build it High, Strong and Fast!!!
It'll save lives on both sides

Pieces of the Berlin Wall in Freedom Park located in Rosslyn VA. Photos taken by on 29 June 1996 by Elvert Barnes Photography at hometown.aol.com/elvertxbarnes/page1.html

The Berlin Wall was built to keep people IN...the Security Fence Israel is building is being built to keep terrorists OUT!!
By the way, Saudi Arabia is building an APARTHEID WALL, as is THAILAND!!
Why are these nations building APARTHIED WALLS of SHAME? same reason as Israel...Moslem terrorists next door keep entering the country and killing innocent civilians...

what is being displaced by the Saudi and Thai Walls? Routes to schools taken by the people Build it High and Security Fence presumably venerate as the people Israel could 'do business with.' That is, if they were to pressure their leaders in other contexts that help obscure the reality that there exist, in Israel, people who are equally rejectionist of Palestinian identity but don't get reported in the press due to "media bias" (term that should be familiar to readers of dis-honestreporting.com, Primer, eyeonthepost.org, Camera.org) while any Palestinian who rejects Israel's right to exist is not only reported but attributed with more influence than often is actually the case. Israelis who have wished to 'drive the Palestinians into Jordan' do and have had power in both the USA and Israel. Midstream Magazine that called the Palestinian people a "Lethal Fiction" in the title of an article written by its then editor and a Jordan is Palestine committee whose director got a letter printed in the NY Times as long ago as 1991 are examples of such a power and reportage imbalance that sometimes spills over to more uncivil or prejudiced remarks. Even if Israel disregards international law and keeps its wall up it should obey the rule of law of its own Supreme Court, something it (and its 'friends standing in solidarity') demand for a Palestinian state.

Move it east to the Jordan River.

The Israeli wall is not a self-defense measure; it's a land grab. If it were intended to keep Palestinians out of Israel, it would follow the path of the Green Line. Instead, it stretches deep into the West Bank. It will thus provide no security whatsoever if any of the many Palestinians inside the wall choose to do something hostile. It will, however, facilitate the de facto annexation of large areas of the West Bank.

You know, it's possible to hold both views being expressed....

1. That Israel does have a right to defend itself against terrorist attacks. Moreover, a security barriers might be a reasonable step in that defense.

2. Israel does not have the right to try and leverage that need for defense into justification for placing the fence outside its borders and making a land grab ("manufacturing facts on the ground") in the process and compounding the suffering of Palestinians and their legitimate efforts at state-building.

See Saturday's Ha'aretz article "UN report accuses Israel of building fence to confiscate land" at www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/481588.html
for the following statements:

"There is no compelling evidence that suicide bombers could not have been as effectively prevented from entering Israel if the wall had been built along the Green Line - the accepted border between Israel and Palestine - or within the Israeli side of the Green Line," John Dugard said in a report to the UN General Assembly.

...

Dugard dismissed Israel's stated reasons for the barrier.

"More constructive explanations" were that it aimed "to expand Israel's territory" and "compel Palestinian residents living between the wall and the Green Line and adjacent to the wall, but separated from their land by the wall, to leave their homes and start a new life elsewhere in the West Bank by making life intolerable for them," he said.

"Rich agricultural land and water resources have been seized along the Green Line and incorporated into Israel," he said.

Peace Now also has a new Middle East Peace report out (www.peacenow.org/nia/peace/v6i10.html).

More lives have been saved since the building of the separation barrier. Isn't that what the palestinians wanted?? More palestinian lives have been saved as well as Israeli lives. This is a real step in the right direction when attempting to quell the situation on the ground. There are actual concrete steps being put in place by Sharon to try in resolve the conflic, and at the risk of his own life by Israeli extremists. The fact of the matter is those protesting the wall do not care about justice or peace. They only care about the destruction of Israel because that is their real agenda. Peace being made on the ground means the PLO terrorists and their supporters are losing ground and momentum on their campaign to destroy Israel.

I noticed that this image is being used as a headline image on the front page. I tried to be clear in my submission: I don't wish the IMC DC editors to use the text or images I submitted for feature or any other use.

I understand that you might see that as a nice thing or somehow still "part of the newswire", but I do not.

Please respect the requests placed by people who contribute to the newsire. Remove my submitted photograph from the newswire banner. Thank you. (And sure, feel free to hide this comment when you honor this request.)

As in the International Court ruling, the problem is not building a wall, but the fact that the wall is built not on the border but through Palestinian communities isolating many and severely disrupting their social and economic life of all of them. This is in breach of numerous international human rights conventions.

Building the wall through the Palestinian territories and not on the border does not a represent an effort to "save lives" but results in Israel simply grabbing more land from the Palestinian people - which is what they have been complaining about all along.

Thus the same pattern - Israel steals land and destroys community under the excuse of security.

The suggestion that this wall is saving Palestinian lives is utter nonsense. Palestinians are still being murdered and the culture systematically destroyed. It is simply time to stop taking seriously people who say that this is about stopping terrorism. How many times does one have to point out that the wall is on Palestinian land, diviiding Palestinians from farms, water, hospitals etc, before we recognize that those who continue lying about this are not serious. To defend this horrifying abuse of human rights is to engage in propaganda for the destruction of Palestinians society. And make no mistake, that is where this is heading.

Anyone seriously interested in confronting this crime needs to join the campaign against the Caterpillar company which supplies equipment to build the wall and the bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes. See Stopcat.org, Catdestroyshomes.org, sustaincampaign.org, endtheoccupation.org

Honestly, the entire route of the Wall is controversial. If Israel needs a wall, let it build it on its own territory. But the fact that Sharon's government intentionally used the wall to annex Palestinian land and make the settlements permanent is illegal. How can Palestinian statehood be achieved when there is no territorial contiguity.

Israel has been deceiving the world for so long that it is time civil society came together to put an end to its madness. Israel is a shame to the word democracy! It claims on democracy are a farce and the faster that Americans understand it the better.

Also to all naysayers, please dont bother calling us all anti-semites, because we know we are not and its really a pity that you all stoop to that level when you know in your heart that Zionism is pure evil.

RE: Mark Lance

Please Check out the Websites of the ORGANIZERS of this Event:
www.stopthewall.us,
along with their fellow activists IN Palestine, at www.stopthewall.org, and www.pengon.org

I attended. Great event. Now we have to start protesting at the NEOCONS offices (see addresses at geocities.com/neoconsbad ) and pro-Israel lobbies like AIPAC and AJC, etc, not to mention the most biased Zionist owned/influenced/bullied media.

Wow, I had a lot of respect for you as an activist Carol. But you sure challenege that positive view when you make disgustingly ignorant and racist remarks like blaming this on some zionist controlled media.

I also expected you to get that this kind lf blanket stereotyping of zionism is as ignorant and hateful as blanket terrorist o remarks against wahhabism Check out the group Peace Now,www.peacenow.org, and consider that this is a group that's extremely critical of Israel's misdeads, that has its roots in refuseniks, and is zionist. There are many forms of zionism, and while some are certainly racist and militant and dreadful, others are very, very different.

I'm pretty understanding of activists that miss this, but to see someone who teaches nonviolence and activism workshops, well it's surprising and dissapointing. Take some time to get educated about this (DC has some fantastic synagogues where you can find strands of dialogues about zionism that is very different from what your portraying).

And as for this whole zionist media control remark, well, maybe you need to do some remedial reading about the Elders of Zion conspiracy theory and the like, and how that is actually part of a broader strand of outright antisemitism.
.

* Zionism isn't a dirty word, it's the name of a movement and ideology, generally the ideology that supports the existence of a "Jewish", i.e. specifically not ethnic/religious identity-neutral, state in historic Palestine, and people who support this idea.

* Zionists are influential in the US and their influence is disproportionate to their numbers, thanks to their wealth, connections, and organization. They engage in conspiracies and manipulations of politics and public opinion, just like other political movements and interest groups.

* Zionism is not necessarily monolithic. Supporters of Israel may disagree about what is in its best interest. However, the most influential group of Zionists are those who directly follow the line and policy of the Government of Israel, or else Likud and Ariel Sharon, which are currently all one and the same.

* Construction of the Wall coincides with a decline in attacks on Israel from 2002. Remember that the intifada is four years old now. Israel has killed three thousand Palestinians, three for every Israeli killed. Palestinians can see that they are not winning in the violence and they are tired of it just like everybody else. So crediting the decline in attacks to the Wall is spurious, like Bush saying there's been no repeat of 9/11 thanks to his putting Saddam in jail.

* The Wall is an illegal land grab and violation of human rights, the Geneva Conventions and the UN Charter.

* The Wall makes a two-state solution unviable and is therefore a profound threat to the "Jewish state".

* The only true Zionists left are the Israeli peace movement exemplified by Gush Shalom, which calls for a two-state solution based on the 1949 border. In contrast, the policies of Sharon and his supporters will lead to a future single Israel-Palestine in which Jews are a minority

Also, do check out the Foundation for Middle East Peace's September-October 2004 edition of the Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories
at

www.fmep.org/reports/2004/Sept-Oct/v14n5.html

Indymedia. Thank you for featuring such an important event on your website.

Dear Stop the Wall Activists, I deeply appreciate what you have done to vividly illustrate the injustice and brutality of the Israeli occupation. If military domination, walls and weapons truly bought security, Israel would be the safest place on earth. They are living an illusion.

The thing that makes this wall so outrageous is that it is located as far as possible into Palestinian lands, thus isolating villages from the outside world, separating farmers from their fields, and in general spreading misery.

Assuming the Israelis with to rule out a secular state, unitary solution, thye need to move this wall back to their own land, behind the green line. They have NO right to take Palestinian land for htis purpose.

Put it this way: If the Berlin Wall had been built on West German land, going out to enclose places East Germany wanted, NATO tanks would have knocked it down in a heartbeat!

I was in meetings all day and as a result missed the Stop the Wall protests in Farragut Square, Washington, DC--very near to where I work. I am pleased to see the photographs. This was a great event. The Wall is problematic for a number of reasons. Legally, it would be permissable if it were on Israel's land. It is not--but rather has been used as yet another excuse to take Palestinian land and water. Despite the Wall's raison d'etre, it is not likely to lead to a reduction of violence, but rather to further indignities that are to perpetuate the cycles of hatred and violence. Thanks to the wall, Palestinians are unable to reach needed medical care, see loved ones, and trade internally--critical to much needed economic growth. Further, it exacerbates the humiliation of checkpoints between places inside the West Bank. These problems are bound to boil over in time. Bigger walls lead neither to better neighbors nor to peaceful coexistance. Just sharing of resources and rights would lead to both.

I have to appologize to you guys for this but I tried to flyer the AU campus but most of them were taken down very quickly and they e-mailed me saying my flyers were hung in improper places. In any event I was glad to be there and would very much like to help out with anything else you guys have coming up in the future: divestment initiatives, etc. So please, if you're looking for help, I'll be happy to donate whatever skills I have to the cause.

Thanks a lot, Paul Costic

Being a Vetnam vet I find it hard to beleve ASSHOLES like this are alowed to do this