UN report attacks Israel's 'separation fence'

By JUSTIN HUGGLER in Jerusalem

The "separation fence" Israel is building on the West Bank will have "severe humanitarian consequences" for almost three quarters of a million Palestinians, the United Nations warned yesterday in a damning report.

More than 274,000 Palestinians will be stranded outside the wall, because Israel refuses to build it along the internationally recognised Green Line.

Thousands will have to apply for Israeli military permits to go on living in their own homes.

But the consequences will reach further, the report warns. A further 400,000 Palestinians will be cut off from their farmland, their jobs, universities and schools by the wall.

"This means that approximately 680,000 - 30 per cent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank - will be directly harmed by the wall," it says.

The "fence" - a series of concrete walls, deep trenches and double fences fitted with electronic sensors - has drawn international condemnation.

Palestinians call it "Israel's Berlin Wall". Even the United States, Israel's main ally, is not happy with the route.

Israel says the purpose of the fence is to prevent Palestinian militants crossing into Israel to carry out suicide bombings and other attacks.

But, despite intense international pressure, Ariel Sharon's Government is refusing to build it along the internationally recognised Green Line that divides Israel from the West Bank.

Only 11 per cent of the route approved runs along the Green Line, says the UN report.

The result is that 85,000ha, or 14.5 per cent of the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, will be cut off from the rest of the West Bank by the wall.

International observers, including US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, have said that it looks like an attempt to create a new border - a land grab of 85,000ha.

The Palestinians say the wall could be the death of the two-state solution envisaged by Bush.

Israel claims the fence is not intended to be a border and is a temporary measure.

But the UN report says: "The damage caused by the destruction of land and property for the wall's construction is irreversible".

In 12 places, enclaves entirely surrounded by the fence will be created. The Palestinians who live there will be surrounded by concrete walls.

The Israeli Cabinet recently approved a route for the fence which will cut 22km into the West Bank so the Jewish settlement of Ariel can be on the "Israeli" side.

The result of detours like this is that 142,000 Jewish settlers - living on the West Bank in contravention of international law - and 274,000 Palestinians will be in the area between the fence and the Green Line.

The settlers will be allowed to cross freely in and out of Israel; the Palestinians will not. They will be confined to what Israel calls a "closed zone". The report describes how the Israeli Army has told 13,545 Palestinians living in the "closed zone" next to a completed section of the wall that they must apply for permits to go on living in their own homes.

The permits will be valid for up to six months.

"These permits have turned a 'right' of Palestinians to live in their own homes into a privilege," the report says.

Palestinian farmers and businessmen, doctors and medical staff, and international aid organisations will have to apply for permits to enter the "closed zone".

Israeli citizens and non-citizens of Jewish origin will not need permits.

"Little consideration appears to have been given by the Israeli Government to the wall's impact on Palestinian lives," says the report.

"If the military orders that restrict entry into the closed areas between the Green Line and the wall are applied to the new parts of the wall, many thousands of Palestinians are likely to be forced from their homes and land."

- INDEPENDENT