Dora McPhee (VIC) writes on the five year anniversary of the ICJ ruling on the Wall The Age 9 July 09 July 9, 2009
Five years today the international court of justice ruled against the WallIsrael is building ostensibly for its security but clearly to annexterritory and settlements to Israel. Recently we heard much about theillegal settlements Israel is continuing to expand being an impediment topeace. Israel’s separation Wall is no less an impediment to peace as it isalso illegal but this barely raises an eyebrow despite five years of itsongoing construction in open defiance of the international court of justiceruling that it must be taken down and compensation paid to the Palestiniansfor the loss of their land and livelihood because of it.
Because of its construction on Palestinian land, 266,422 Palestinians havehad their communities, which are in the seam zone, surrounded, isolated andnow face displacement. Their lives are made intolerable because of it astheir freedom of movement is even more restricted than is the case of theirfellow Palestinians in the West Bank whose lives and movement are controlled
by Israel’s over-arching occupation administered through a series ofpermits, checkpoints and military control. No one even considers Israel’scontrol of “time” as well as “space” that the Palestinians have to endure inan occupation that has lasted 42 years – all because Israel’s insistence onbeing a “Jewish state” means that the indigenous Palestinians are bydefinition excluded and understandably hostile to those who continue to dispossess them.
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