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A Wall as a Weapon. Chomsky On The Apartheid Wall

Noam Chomsky | 23.02.2004 11:54 | Anti-militarism | World

A Wall as a Weapon

By NOAM CHOMSKY

February 23, 2004
The New York Times




CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — It is a virtual reflex for governments to plead security concerns when they undertake any controversial action, often as a pretext for something else. Careful scrutiny is always in order. Israel's so-called security fence, which is the subject of hearings starting today at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, is a case in point.

Few would question Israel's right to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks like the one yesterday, even to build a security wall if that were an appropriate means. It is also clear where such a wall would be built if security were the guiding concern: inside Israel, within the internationally recognized border, the Green Line established after the 1948-49 war. The wall could then be as forbidding as the authorities chose: patrolled by the army on both sides, heavily mined, impenetrable. Such a wall would maximize security, and there would be no international protest or violation of international law.

This observation is well understood. While Britain supports America's opposition to the Hague hearings, its foreign minister, Jack Straw, has written that the wall is "unlawful." Another ministry official, who inspected the "security fence," said it should be on the Green Line or "indeed on the Israeli side of the line." A British parliamentary investigative commission also called for the wall to be built on Israeli land, condemning the barrier as part of a "deliberate" Israeli "strategy of bringing the population to heel."

What this wall is really doing is taking Palestinian lands. It is also — as the Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling has described Israel's war of "politicide" against the Palestinians — helping turn Palestinian communities into dungeons, next to which the bantustans of South Africa look like symbols of freedom, sovereignty and self-determination.

Even before construction of the barrier was under way, the United Nations estimated that Israeli barriers, infrastructure projects and settlements had created 50 disconnected Palestinian pockets in the West Bank. As the design of the wall was coming into view, the World Bank estimated that it might isolate 250,000 to 300,000 Palestinians, more than 10 percent of the population, and that it might effectively annex up to 10 percent of West Bank land. And when the government of Ariel Sharon finally published its proposed map, it became clear the the wall would cut the West Bank into 16 isolated enclaves, confined to just 42 percent of the West Bank land that Mr. Sharon had previously said could be ceded to a Palestinian state.

The wall has already claimed some of the most fertile lands of the West Bank. And, crucially, it extends Israel's control of critical water resources, which Israel and its settlers can appropriate as they choose, while the indigenous population often lacks water for drinking.

Palestinians in the seam between the wall and the Green Line will be permitted to apply for the right to live in their own homes; Israelis automatically have the right to use these lands. "Hiding behind security rationales and the seemingly neutral bureaucratic language of military orders is the gateway for expulsion," the Israeli journalist Amira Hass wrote in the daily Haaretz. "Drop by drop, unseen, not so many that it would be noticed internationally and shock public opinion." The same is true of the regular killings, terror and daily brutality and humiliation of the past 35 years of harsh occupation, while land and resources have been taken for settlers enticed by ample subsidies.

It also seems likely that Israel will transfer to the occupied West Bank the 7,500 settlers it said this month it would remove from the Gaza Strip. These Israelis now enjoy ample land and fresh water, while one million Palestinians barely survive, their meager water supplies virtually unusable. Gaza is a cage, and as the city of Rafah in the south is systematically demolished, residents may be blocked from any contact with Egypt and blockaded from the sea.

It is misleading to call these Israeli policies. They are American-Israeli policies — made possible by unremitting United States military, economic and diplomatic support of Israel. This has been true since 1971 when, with American support, Israel rejected a full peace offer from Egypt, preferring expansion to security. In 1976, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for a two-state settlement in accord with an overwhelming international consensus. The two-state proposal has the support of a majority of Americans today, and could be enacted immediately if Washington wanted to do so.

At most, the Hague hearings will end in an advisory ruling that the wall is illegal. It will change nothing. Any real chance for a political settlement — and for decent lives for the people of the region — depends on the United States.


Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the author of "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance."

Noam Chomsky

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

List Anti-Wall Op-eds in today's Uk and US Press

23.02.2004 12:07

UK

Marouf Zahran, Mayor of Qalqylia, In the Shadow Israel's Wall, The Guardian
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,1153870,00.html

USA

Noam Chomsky, Professor and Activist, "A Wall as a Weapon, The New York Times
 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/23/opinion/23CHOM.html

David Bloom, Co-editor WorldWar3 Report, "Letter from Jayyous", the Nation
 http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040308&s=bloom

Jeff Halper, Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition, "America is Complicit in Illegal Wall"
 http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/02/21/america_is_complicit_in_illegal_wall/

Jamal Juma', Coordinator of the Campaign to Stop the Wall, "A Noose Around the Necks of Palestinians", The Miami Herald
 http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/8007056.htm

Jessica Montell, Executive Director, B'Tselem, The Baltimore Sun
(Waiting weblink)

Iltezam Morrar, 15 Year Old Student from Budrus, "It Exists not for Security but for Apartheid", The Philadelphia Inquirer
 http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/7994868.htm


Articles in the UK Media

Marouf Zahran, Mayor of Qalqylia, In the Shadow Israel's Wall, The Guardian
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,1153870,00.html

anti-Wall


walls

23.02.2004 13:49

It's a pity that Chomsky did not criticise in such terms the wall separating the two Germanies in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

sceptic


.

23.02.2004 14:13

"It's a pity that Chomsky did not criticise in such terms the wall separating the two Germanies in the 1960s, 70s and 80s."

It's a pity sceptic doesn't know that this wall was only actually there in berlin
It's a pity sceptic doesn't know that this wall was built on east-german territory, and thus did not turn west germany into a maze of isolated enclaves
It's a pity sceptic isn't actually knowledgable on Chomsky's work, including his writings on oppression in eastern europe / the ussr (if he/she was, there wouldn't be a need to add dumb remarks to articles by Chomsky)

.


walls

23.02.2004 16:20

True, the wall was only in Berlin. But the whole of Germany was divided in a similar way. Indeed, what was euphemistically referred to as the 'Inner German Border' was much nastier than any wall.

I was once part of a group being shown the IGB. To illustrate its moral squalor, this was not a border to keep people at, but one built as a prison to keep people in. It had some rather unpleasant refinements over a mere wall. The area for some kiloemtres to the rear was a 'no go' area. If some intrepid soul made their way through this, they were then confronted with minefields. Following that there was a dog run: dogs were tethered to a wire which they could run up and down, being able to savage anyone who crossed the run. Then there were more mines, this time on a weeded, bare patch of earth, smoothed so that there was no indication of where they might be. Punctuating the border every kilometre or so were watchtowers. with searchlights for night time, manned by armed guards with instructions to shoot on sight. If, after all this, someone made it to the wire, there was a further, added, and rather nasty refinement. Putting your weight on the wire would trigger a sideways pointing shotgun on each of the fence post, to blast you off the wire.

I don't recall Chomsky writing on this. Perhaps he did, but if he did so, his writings on the subject haven't had great circulation or publicity. Perhpas you would care to point us in the directions of such writings.

sceptic


ridiculous distraction tactic

24.02.2004 02:42

Please dont fall for this ridiculous distraction by agreeing to discuss what else chomsky may or may not have written. It's probably a tactic from para 17.1a of the zionists propaganda manual.

THIS PIECE is here before us. Judge it on its merits. I judge it, and I find it well in accord with my own observations, analyses, and conclusions. It is also, as always from Chomsky, well-written, clear, coherent, and to the point. I applaud it.

nonbombardier


I love you Scepty poos

25.02.2004 01:09

Sceptic, I've really missed you. Spent days looking for a sign, but you had foresaken us. Became worried, fearful that the world may never be the same again without the clarion call of your rationalism and wisdom. I REALLY need this peurile love of humanity ground out of my system by lexical pneumatic drills such as yourself, or I fear I may be lost forever. I mean, what am I doing, hoping that the world can embrace equality and tolerance? Who the FUCK do I think I am? I admit I was wavering before I saw your blessed post; a recidivist relapsing back into old unwelcome grooves. But thanks to you I'm going to vote for Michael Howard and donate all my spare cash to Ariel Sharon's wonderful regime. God bless you Sceptic, we all need you now more than ever.

Turgid replies about ad hominem attacks not necessary Scepty Babe - I have learned to love Big Brother! Hallelujah!

Bendeus


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