Parliament Magazine - November 7, 2011 - Issue 337, p. 7.
The international community must help negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, argues Alexandra Thein. Member of the European Parliament with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats of Europe (ALDE), Alexandra Thein was part of the CEPR delegation to Jordan and Palestine in October 2011.
To view the Parliament Magazine PDF, click here: "Climbing the Walls"
I am from Berlin where the wall famously came down in 1989. Remnants of the wall remain in Berlin and pieces were scattered around the world as memorabilia. A slab stands in Place de Luxembourg in the heart of Brussels as a reminder of how Europe’s east and west united. I was therefore disheartened to see the Israeli ‘separation’ wall or ‘segregation’ wall as referred to by the Palestinians, surrounding all of Jerusalem and extending far into the West Bank. The Jews have their wailing wall and this new wall makes you want to weep when you understand that it separates fellow humans and severs the beautiful geography of what could be Palestine.
It is disheartening to learn that the approximate 760 kilometres of Israel's wall envelops what remains of the West Bank, from the northern Palestinian city of Jenin, to the western city of Qalqilya that is completely encircled, to Bethlehem and south of Hebron - around three million Palestinians are secluded within this wall and herded through checkpoints like cattle.
This wall doe not just separate Israelis from Palestinians - as if that were not tragic enough - it also separates Palestinians from Palestinians. Besides the blatant and intentional division this creates, the wall was not built on what should be the borders between Israel and Palestine - the borders laid out in 1967.
The Israeli wall encroaches on more than 10 per cent of Palestinian land in the West Bank, it incorporates large swathes of East Jerusalem with massive Jewish settlements such as Ma'ale Adumim and Gilo. The consolidation of Greater Jerusalem as the capital of Israel along with expanding settlements renders negotiations with the Palestinians rather difficult.
Indeed, it is hard to imagine now where in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian capital, would be allowed to be and begs the question: how can one ask the Palestinians to negotiate without any preconditions when what is left for them today - namely a mere 12 per cent of historic Palestine - is dwindling further, not to mention the lack of access for Palestinians to the Jordan River and soon also to the Dead Sea.
The wall was set up by the Israelis to dissuade Palestinian attacks against Israel, but this steep decline in attacks is more due to other reasons, notably the increased security measures in the West Bank - with the assistance of European-trained police forces for example - as well as to a genuine willingess on behalf of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Whether one agrees with the Palestinian UN bid, when all other political options are exhausted, it is understandable that the Palestinian leadership would try to make progress through non-violent and multilateral international bodies such as the United Nations. Palestinian diplomacy should be encouraged to bring Israel back to the negotiating table before the two-state solution slips away.
If we don't want to lose all our credibility, we should not solely concentrate on the technical aspects of state-building. We must support Palestinian democracy, and that includes that we respect the outcome of future elections, as long as they are fair and free - to help overcome the walls of this world.