GAZA, 4 October 2003 — The Islamic militant movement Hamas said yesterday the barrier Israel is building with the West Bank would not prevent attacks on Israelis and doomed the US-backed peace “road map” to failure. “The wall will not protect the Zionist entity and will not stop the strikes of resistance. The day will come when this wall will eventually collapse just as the Berlin Wall collapsed,” Hamas said in a statement in the Gaza Strip.
The statement stepped up a Palestinian campaign against the barrier, which Israel decided on Wednesday to extend deeper into Palestinian territory to enclose some big Jewish settlements.
Several thousand Hamas supporters later marched through the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza vowing to continue the three-year-old uprising for statehood. One said through a loudspeaker that attacks would “burn the ground under the Zionists’ feet”.
Israel says the barrier, which is mostly an electronic sensor fence but in a few parts a huge concrete wall, is needed to stop bombers who have killed hundreds of Israelis.
It also unveiled plans on Thursday to build more than 600 new homes in Jewish settlements, defying the road map’s calls for a freeze on all “settlement activity” and prompting US Secretary of State Colin Powell to express his concern.
Palestinians say the barrier is a unilateral “land grab” intended to cement Jewish settlements in the West Bank which the Palestinians want as part of their independent state. President Yasser Arafat appealed on Thursday to the “quartet” of major powers steering peacemaking efforts — the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — to stop the barrier being built.
Prime Minister-designate Ahmed Qorei condemned Israel’s actions. “This proves Israel is not serious about peace and aims at unilaterally setting political borders to prevent the establishment of a viable Palestinian independent state,” the Al-Ayyam newspaper quoted him as saying.
Hamas, which has carried out many bombings and opposes Israel’s existence, said the barrier would leave many Palestinians on the Israeli side of the fence. “And that means it will be impossible to establish a Palestinian political entity and it means the early failure of the road map project,” it said.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said the army wanted to enforce a 400-meter-wide “security zone” around all settlements after the barrier is completed. Palestinians would not be allowed to enter the zones and trespassers would risk being shot.
Russia called on Israel yesterday to stop the construction of the barrier and halt the expansion of settlements. “The activity of the settlements as well as the construction of the security barrier which ends up annexing Palestinian land and isolating many inhabitants, should be suspended,” the Foreign Ministry said in Moscow.
“The Israeli government’s intention to build 565 new buildings in the occupied West Bank met with great concern in Moscow,” the ministry added. “This decision, as well as the construction of security posts in Palestinian territory, is contrary to the spirit and letter of the road map.”
Meanwhile, Jordan has refused a request by Israel to use the Red Sea port of Aqaba, saying it was already overcrowded, a top Jordanian official said yesterday. Israel said earlier this week it was looking into using Jordanian and Egyptian ports to bypass a strike by 2,500 dockworkers that has brought its three seaports to a standstill.
