The NEW wall? - a little bit of propaganda

"On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert told Israeli MPs
he would devote the next year to
pursuing peace with the Palestinians.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7036945.stm

Did you know that the "barrier", which Israel is building around the West Bank is illegal, according to the International Court of Justice? I just read this and think there has been an awful lack of awareness of this fact, although this was an ICJ ruling from 2004! It is not surprising that this decision hasn't been accepted or enforced by the Security Council yet.

Who would have thought that Israel is doing something illegal?!

Myself, I find this barrier and the general silence about it on the international political scene utterly unbelievable. There is plenty of information on the net about both sides of argument: Israel wants to protect itself from Palestinian terrorism, which has killed over 1,000 of its citizens in over 20,000 attacks in the last 3 1/2 years (http://www.aijac.org.au/updates/Jul-04/120704.html). The Palestinians find their land being confiscated and taken away and the internationally agreed 1967 borders being ignored, separating them from the farm or pasture land and sometimes creating an ugly, up to 8m-high concrete wall all around them (see photo below).

I don't want to release a very biased statement here, there's enough of those around, but I feel that this issue is not receiving enough attention worldwide... so if you care, take a few minutes and google it. (A good place to start is the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories at www.ochaopt.org)

Here's a few (biased) pictures:


A basic map of the barrier.

A map focused on the area of Qalqilia, where the barrier penetrates deeply into the West Bank territory.

Two views of the wall passing between palestinian land and Israeli land or settlements.

Some artists' expressions on the small part of the barrier that is built as a massive wall.

A very 'controversial' (but maybe obvious) comparison to the Wall that separated East from West Germany for over thirty years. (it is a little old, I think, but a pretty cool graphic.)