in Rafah refugee camp while practicing non-violent resistance on March 16, 2003.
35. Interestingly, the wall being built along the US-Mexico border to keep out immigrants is being built with the aid of Israeli engineers and contractors.
36. Whereas most of those opposed to the wall consider the settlements crucial to determining the wall's path, there are many who consider the location of water aquifers on the West Bank to be equally crucial, and many more who consider the Balkanization or Bantustanization of Palestine to be yet another factor. For a map of the wall see http://www.btselem.org/Download/Separation_Barrier
_Map_Eng.pdf. Unfortunately, though maps exist, there are none readily available to the general public that overlay the wall's route with a map of water distribution. Of course, large settlement blocs have been built where water is most abundant. For a good discussion of the geographic considerations of Israeli architecture, see Segal and Weizman, A Civilian Occupation: The Politics of Israeli Architecture, Verso, 2003.
37. Felaheen: the settled peasant farmers who worked, but did not necessarily own, the land. Nakba-catastrophe-is the Palestinian term for the ethnic cleansing of approximately 400 villages in the initial Israeli military occupation beyond the land allotted Israel in UN Resolution 181 which divided Mandate Palestine.
38. The Israeli bulldozers Avnery refers to are typically Caterpillar D-9s. For more information see www.catdestroyshomes.org/ . Sharon got his nickname because
of his bulldozer tactics and style.
39. Whether or not the "Eastern Wall" will be built is still under question. Currently Gaza is, and has been, completely enfenced. It has been called the largest outdoor prison in the world.
40. As of 2008 there are approximately 11,000 Palestinian prisoners.
41. Gilad Shalit is an Israeli soldier captured near Gaza in June 2006 By January 2008 he had not been released.
42. It is problematic that during prisoner exchanges, Palestinians are released in hugely exponential numbers vis-a-vis Israeli prisoners, giving the impression of either a difference in worth, as Avnery mentions, or a difference in the quality of good faith gestures by either side, because the general public does not realize the gross inequity in numbers of those taken prisoner by either side.
43. Marwan Barghouti is a Palestinian political leader currently serving five life sentences for "terrorist" activities against Israel. See Avnery's September 15, 2007, essay "The Palestinian Mandela" in this volume.
44. There are currently (2008) approximately 4.5 million Palestinian refugees.
45. The right of return for all peoples displaced by war is codified in the Fourth Geneva Convention. The right of return for Palestinians is specifically guaranteed by UN Resolution 194, passed in 1948.
46. Benny Morris became one of the Israeli "new historians" with the 1987 publication of The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949, but gave a series of interviews over the winter of 2003-04 which openly advocated "transfer," an Israeli euphemism for ethnic cleansing through forcing Palestinians out of the country. The new historians are a group of Israeli scholars who used recently declassified documents about the founding of the state of Israel to refute many of its founding myths.
47. See Avnery's essay "The peace criminal" in this volume.