OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 25 September 2003 — Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom admitted yesterday that there were still differences with Washington over a controversial security barrier Israel is building along the West Bank.
“There is no doubt the Americans disapprove of the line we have fixed” for the barrier aimed at keeping Palestinian militants out of Israel, Shalom told Israeli public radio in a telephone interview from New York. “But the government will have to make a decision on this matter, and I think personally that we must do our utmost to defend the maximum number of Israelis.”
The main bone of contention is Israel’s plan to extend the barrier around the Jewish settlement of Ariel, which lies 20 kilometers (12 miles) on the Palestinian side of the Green Line marking Israel’s 1967 border. “I believe Ariel is inhabited by Israelis,” Shalom added.
Shalom said he would be having further talks with US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and US Secretary of State Colin Powell. Rice said Monday after meeting Israeli officials in Washington that the barrier — which US President George W. Bush has described as “a problem” — was not “consistent” with the United States’ view of the Middle East.
Washington has said it might deduct the cost of the barrier where it infringes on Palestinian territory from the nine billion dollars worth of loan guarantees Washington has offered Israel.
Meir Sheetrit, Israel’s minister without portfolio at the Finance Ministry, said that nothing, including cuts in loan guarantees, would stop Israel from completing the barrier. “We have the intention to build the fence as fast as possible to protect ourselves, and I hope that the United States would not punish us for that,” Sheetrit said in Dubai, where he is heading a 40-member delegation at International Monetary Fund and World Bank talks.
“Even if they reduce those funds, we are going to do it,” he said. The first section, which was completed in July, already chops large swathes of fertile land off the West Bank. Work on the next section has been postponed due to differences over its route.
In addition to the humanitarian and economic impact of the barrier, Palestinians fear it will become the de facto border of their future state, something that the Israelis deny.
