Simply
look at the maps
Ben Gurion University anthropolgist Jeff Halper really does know his maps, as the below
article from the Cape Cod Times only begins to relate. Before a group of about 35 in
Berkeley yesterday, Halper demonstrated how Israel's divide and conquer strategy for the
West Bank really works.
Israel has effectively divided the West Bank Palestinian population not only into three
major non-contingent areas, but each of these areas is further divided into sub-zones by
the imposition of fenced off by-pass roads, settlements and security zones which serve as
barriers between Palestinian towns and cities.
Halper showed the extent of the three main Israeli settlement blocs: the Western Samaria
Bloc (including Ariel), the Adumim Bloc (including Ma'aleh Adumim, Givat Ze'ev and Modi'in
-- rapidly clustering to create the Greater Jerusalem metropolitan zone), and the Etzion
Bloc (including Betar Elite, Efrat and the Etzion
settlements). These blocs -- even should Israel dismantle the outlying among its 195
Jewish settlements (40 built under Barak) -- render virtually impossible any viable
Palestinian state. The Adumim bloc, one can easily see on Halper's maps, simply cuts the
West Bank in half.
And Israel is continuing its ambitious plan to build 250 miles of by-pass roads in the
West Bank, at a cost of $3 billion (fully US funded). Each of these roads is considered
"extra-territorial"; that is, Israel intends to control them under any new
arrangement -- unlike the Palestinian "free passage" route between the West Bank
and Gaza, which is not "extra-territorial" and therefore controlled not by
Palestinians who use it, but by Israel. Each of the by-pass roads is also massive, at
approximately 300 yards wide, and swallows up huge swaths of Palestinian land.
Do most Israelis understand these maps and their implications? No, says Halper. Do most
Palestinians understand all of this? Halper suggests that average Palestinians don't see
the larger geographical picture, but they live every day the incredible frustrations and
powerlessness that these imposed divisions create. Halper uses the metaphor of a prison:
in a prison, the prisoners live in about 95% of the space, and the guards control
"only" about 5%. But this 5% includes all of the corridors between the cells,
and therefore the guards control the entire prison. Thus it is with the Palestinian
territories, which are being incorporated and at the same time isolated by Israel's policy
of divide and control. Former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon's comment that this is leading to
a situation of practical apartheid (or 'hafrada,' "separation") is perfectly
accurate. |
