WEST BANK/JERUSALEM: UNITED NATIONS SAYS 30 PERCENT OF PALESTINIANS WILL BE AFFECTED BY WEST BANK FENCE

Record ID: 338254

  • Title: WEST BANK/JERUSALEM: UNITED NATIONS SAYS 30 PERCENT OF PALESTINIANS WILL BE AFFECTED BY WEST BANK FENCE
  • Date: 10th November 2003
  • Summary: (EU) AL QANA SETTLEMENT, NEAR SALFIT, WEST BANK (NOVEMBER 10, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV/MCU PALESTINIAN CHILDREN PLAYING OUTSIDE HOUSE LOCATED NEAR FENCE (2 SHOTS) 0.08 2. PUL OUT/PAN/SV/CU VARIOUS OF WORKERS BUILDING SEPARATION FENCE DIVIDING ISRAEL AND WEST BANK (6 SHOTS) 0.39 3. LV CONSTRUCTION OF GATE WHICH WILL BE USED AS CHECKPOINT 0.45 (EU) JERUSALEM (NOVEMBER 10, 2003) (REUTERS) 4. LAS EXTERIOR OF U.N. OFFICE FOR THE CO-ORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS (OCHA) IN JERUSALEM 0.52 5. MCU (English) HEAD OF THE U.N. JERUSALEM OFFICE FOR THE CO-ORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS DAVID SHEARER SAYING: "We're looking here really at the humanitarian situation with regards to the wall. The new wall projections, the wall will be 680 kilometres long. It doesn't simply go along the Green Line, it goes in and out of Palestinian territory. There will be round about 275,000 Palestinians between the wall and the Green Line, between the wall and Israel and many of those people will actually be completely enclosed within enclaves. That's round about 210,000 acres that will be in that area and that's a very, very high humanitarian price to pay for what's meant to be a security feature." 1.46 6. MAP OF FENCE AREA 1.55 (EU) AL QANA SETTLEMENT, NEAR SALFIT, WEST BANK (NOVEMBER 10, 2003) (REUTERS) 7. SLV/MCU OF PALESTINIAN MEN PASSING THROUGH CHECKPOINT AND GATE AT SEPARATION FENCE (4 SHOTS) 2.37 (EU) (NOVEMBER 10, 2003) (REUTERS) 8. GRAPHIC MAP OF SEPARATION FENCE 3.04 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 25th November 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEAR SALFIT, WEST BANK / JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA37284TF29SISLZYPKQM54YXF8
  • Story Text: United Nations says 30 percent of Palestinians will
    be affected by West Bank fence.



    A security barrier being erected by Israel in the
    West Bank "will have severe consequences" because it will
    fence in and isolate hundreds of thousands of Palestinians,
    a United Nations official warned on Monday (November 10).

    David Shearer, who heads the world body's Office for
    the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem,
    said that 30 percent of Palestinians or 680,000 people
    stand to be impacted by the wall planned to be 687
    kilometres long.

    Israel says the system of electronic fencing and
    concrete walls it began building last year is meant to keep
    out suicide bombers. Palestinians call it a "new Berlin
    Wall" and accuse Israel of effectively annexing territory
    they seek for a state.

    The U.S. has expressed concern at Israel's plan to loop
    the wall deep into the West Bank to encompass Jewish
    settlements and carve out a future border that can render
    it impossible to create a viable Palestinian state.

    Based on a study of a revised map of the planned
    barrier as approved by Israel's government, Shearer said he
    fears the project will "have severe humanitarian
    consequences."
    The wall will fragment Palestinian communities in 122
    towns and villages will be encircled by the barrier while
    another 400,000 will need to get past the fence to reach
    their farm fields or other jobs, Shearer said.

    As a result of access restrictions, "more people unable
    to reach their land to harvest crops, graze animals or to
    reach work to earn the money to buy food, will be hungry,"
    he said.

    So far only about a fourth of the barrier has been
    built at an estimated cost of some $3.4 billion Dollars,
    and only about 11 percent of it will be inside Israel, the
    rest extending into occupied land.

    "There will be round about 275,000 Palestinians between
    the wall and the Green Line, between the wall and Israel
    and many of those people will actually be completely
    enclosed within enclaves. That's round about 210,000 acres
    that will be in that area and that's a very, very high
    humanitarian price to pay for what's meant to be a security
    feature," Shearer explains.

    In some spots, the barrier -- comprised of concrete
    walls, ditches, tenches, roads, razor wire and electronic
    fences -- is to extend as deep as 22 km into the West Bank
    to encompass 54 Jewish settlements where some 142,000
    Israelis live, he said.

    Some of the West Bank's most fertile areas will be
    surrounded by the fence, while another 14.5 percent of land
    will likely become off limits to Palestinians because it
    will fall between the barrier and the Israeli frontier,
    Shearer said.



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