Introduction:

On September 28, 2000, then Likud opposition leader Ariel Sharon chose to make a most provocative visit to the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, accompanied by as many as 1000 Israeli Special Forces units. As a consequence of this provocation the Palestinian Uprising or Second Intifada erupted, a show of collective Palestinian dismay at Israel’s illegal and prolonged occupation of Palestinian land and people.

Instead of recognizing the adversarial reality of this occupation, the government of Israel, at the time headed by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, initiated the construction of what came to be known by Palestinians, as the ‘Segregation and Annexation Wall.’ The first sections of the Wall were built in the northern West bank city of Jenin in beginning of 2002.

Israel’s ‘Wall’ is being built in such a way as to divide Palestinian population centers from their adjacent agricultural land and water resources, isolating Palestinian population centers from one another and restricting not only freedom of movement of individuals but also worsening an already crippled Palestinian economy. The ‘Wall’ separates Palestinians from Palestinians and serves to secure illegal settlements built on occupied land. The most evident exploitation of Israel’s breach of convention is the implementation of new borders within the West Bank (including east Jerusalem), an occupied territory.

This actual annexation of land alongside the violations of basic human rights highlights Israel’s self-absorbed, unilateral and unconstructive-to-peace policies, with complete disregard to common human values that would take into consideration the effect the ‘Wall’ has on Palestinians. So that as Hebrew University's Shlomo Avineri explains while, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has at last internalized the limits of Israeli power to impose the ousting of Palestinians entirely, the remaining option was simply to separate the Palestinians from Israelis. This move makes evident that withdrawal and construction of this Segregation and Annexation Wall in the West Bank, is meant to give the Israelis security and while its effect on Palestinians was unclear, it was left unexplored, one imagines, due to its irrelevance on Israeli policy.

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