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Barrier Wall in the Vicinity of Jerusalem

©David B. Fankhauser, Ph.D.,
Professor of Biology and Chemistry
University of Cincinnati Clermont College,
Batavia OH 45103
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This page has been accessed  Counter times since 13 July 2006. 
***DATES REVISED
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In the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem, one at once sees the huge wall being constructed by Israel which walls off expanded Israeli-controlled land from the ever diminishing Palestinian  sectors.

The night before, a view of Jerusalem from the Mt. of Olives.  Then traveling through Jerusalem, one can see along the "green line" (former boundary between Israeli and Palestinian sectors of Jerusalem) bullet pock-marked buildings, and new Israeli settlements in what was once the Palestinian sector.  We got an excellent lecture from "Mikado" on the history of the advancing Israeli take-over of Palestinian lands.
 

The 26 foot wall being erected which walls off formerly Palestinian land into the Israeli-controlled land.  Often, barriers are erected across Palestiinian roads, blocking access between adjacent Palestinian neighborhoods.  Here is a picture of wall sections being hauled on a  flat bed truck. Upon the rare occasion when the wall is visible to Israelis, it is "beautified" with a mural painting.
     

This is a notorious Israeli prison camp in which, until recent years, torture was used to extract information from Palestinian prisoners.


Checkpoints are a major means by which Israelis control movement of Palestinians.  Often, relaxed Israeli soldiers, always carrying automatic weapons, chew the fat while Palestinians may wait hours to have their papers approved to go from one Palestinian neighborhood to another.  The major checkpoint installations give the fortification/barrier all the appearance of a prison.

          

As before, Israeli settlements are built along the ridges which give them military advantage over any Palestinian activities in the orchards below.  We stopped at an Israeli gasoline station, which Israel considers equivalent to an Israeli settlement, and therefore, all "unoccupied" land around it is under Israeli control.  Note in the background that Israel is mining Palestinian resources, in violation of the Geneva accords which prohibits extraction of the resources from occupied lands.
 

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