One aspect of the occupation that is relatively new-unlike the home demolitions and checkpoints-is the building of the so-called "Security/Separation/ Annexation Wall." Its construction is gobbling huge swathes of farmland, centuries-old olive trees and houses that stand in its way inside occupied Palestine.-SRP
May 3, 2004
For a fraction of a second, I was panic-stricken.
The terrible monster coming towards me was not more than five meters away and continued to move as if I weren't there. The giant bulldozer pushed a great heap of dirt and boulders before it. The driver, two meters above me, seemed a part of the machine. It was clear that nothing would stop him. I jumped aside at the last moment.
Some weeks ago, in a similar situation, the American peace activist Rachel Corrie expected the driver to stop. Fie did not, and she was crushed to death.34
I did not come on this occasion to demonstrate (we shall do this today) but to look around. In the olive grove, a few meters from the tents that were set up by the villagers of Mas'ha, together with Israeli and international peace activists, three monsters were preparing the ground for the Separation Wall.35 They raised clouds of dust and a deafening roar, so that we could hardly converse. They work every day, even on Passover, twelve hours a day, without a break.
The whole Israeli public supports the Separation Wall. It has no idea what it is supporting. One has to come to the place in order to understand all the implications of the project.
First of all, it has to be said unequivocally: this wall has nothing to do with security.
It is being sold to the Israeli public as a "security fence." The army calls it an "obstacle." The public, which of course yearns for security, is buying the goods eagerly.
At long last something is being done!
And indeed, the idea looks quite simple. Even the most unsophisticated person can grasp it. It seems almost self-evident: a Palestinian who wants to blow himself up in Israel has first of all to cross the pre1967 border, the so-called Green Line. If a wall or fence is built along the Green Line, the terrorists will not be able to come. No more attacks, no more suicide bombers.
But logic says that if this had indeed been a security-wall, it would have been built directly along the Green Line. All Israelis (except the