The West Bank Wall : Unmaking Palestine

"The West Bank Wall" will serve as a highly valuable source book for journalists, academics and students.

The authors' main argument is that Israel - under the pretext of a 'temporary' security measure - is using the wall to redraw its borders to permanently annex major settlement blocs which it has illegally constructed throughout the occupied West Bank.

This unilateral initiative is being implemented with the agreement of the US administration, although contrary to internationally-approved proposals for a just and lasting resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The introduction places the wall in its historic context, as the culmination of Israel's long-term strategy to annex strategic land and water assets and to limit the boundaries of the Palestinian state, territorially and politically.

The principal victims of the wall are the Palestinian rural population, the main targets of land confiscation and settlement expansion since 1967.

A separate chapter will examine the impact in Jerusalem where the wall serves to consolidate Israel's illegal annexation and colonization of East Jerusalem, at the expense of the native Muslim and Christian populations. Internationally, construction of the wall has taken place against the backdrop of the 'Road Map' and Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan.

The wall has been the subject of a number of UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions and a landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice, which declared that the route through the West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal.

Flaunting international law the Bush administration has instead officially informed Sharon that the US will support Israel's retention of the main settlement blocs - now fortified behind the wall - in any final peace agreement.

With the international community failing the Palestinians, it has been left to non-state actors to lead opposition to the wall.

Palestinian villagers, international solidarity organizations and progressive Israelis have joined together with some success at the local level.

However, in the face of Palestinian Authority inactivity and international complicity such efforts have largely failed to halt the overall route. Completion of the wall will sound the death knell for a meaningful 'two-state solution', leading instead to a Palestinian entity of separated cantons, devoid of territorial, political or economic integrity and lacking East Jerusalem as its capital.