What IF a wall was built Separating the West Bank and Israel?

Question

West Germany and East Germany had a wall for many years which made living conditions more peaceful until the time came that peace was possible. Do you think that if the UN borders were agreed upon, and if the settlers were willing to leave the West Bank and a big wall was built until the time that real peace could be achieved, would any agree with this?
And also if we could only have a civilized conversation without hateful or hurtful comments plz. Thanx in advance.

thanx jim for showing that you are civilized.

Londerner in Israel: Perhaps the UN could monitor while a Big wall that is bomb resistant is built? For a while? I agree with your comment , thanx.

@hamaker , again maybe the UN would /could monitor the process, if all were in agreement to the original borders. I know attempts have been made in the past . But I mean what are other solutions for the future. Interesting , people actually sat and got paid $20? Sounds like construction crews in Canada! Hehe

Dear H: I hear and I feel you very deeply. And I agree with you ,yes, but sometimes I throw my hands up in the air. It's been 60 years. How much more can any human take? On both sides. I think personally that if UN borders were agreed upon and houses not destroyed anymore , freedom to move about. What is the solution? I do feel you and if you have a better "What if" plz dear ask your question. By the way , your english is very good. Don't worry about your spelling , all understand you, and Im sure many feel you.

EU citizen: I speak about 1967
SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTIONS - 1967 in particular resolution 242
http://www.un.org/documents/sc/res/1967/scres67.htm

edit at gavriella: I guess you would have to live in the west bank to see how the settlers hurt people. Here are some examples if you care to see the truth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK2xKURltqE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqvLtoWBpTU&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqvLtoWBpTU&mode=related&search=

How is that most Pro-Palestine/israel people can see both sides, can admit the mistakes of both sides, but some only need to see one side! 60 years, if we in the west cannot find a solution, then we really must remain hopeless. And live in a Zoo forever.

Correction: the ones in the middle east, must live in a hopeless Z00 forever.

also gaverella and Tabatha: you can tell yourself over and over and you can tell others over and over: but the fact remains the entire international community is fully aware of the injustice done by Israel and Palestine. Cluster bombs, suicide bombs, indescrimanite bombing, complete destruction, 1000's dead, and yes even propaganda on both sides, displacement, lies, the entire world is aware. Only chance , wait for God to finish it all, maybe. Peace All!

sorry tabatha and gavrella my emotions ran away with me, there are many more also that refuse to see the truth, sorry to single you two out.

Yes mike you are correct, sorry as most have now been trained to say communities(illegal settlements), it would in reality be impossible to build a winding wall around all of these communities(ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS)

you are speaking of the communities(illegal settlements) that are in the west bank are you not?

Wasn't the last bombing of the Israeli soldiers done by a group called"Islamic Jihad?" aha how many groups are there in Palestine resisting? why is only Hamas brought up? if you type in islamic jihad bomb israel, you will see many many reports and claims of responsiblity.

Answer 1

Yes in situations where two groups of people cannot get on together without killing each other, a pragmatic solution is to build a wall between them to keep them apart, and seek to resolve differences later. Israel has recognised this as a sensible interim step, and has already started building such a wall. There is no reason why Israel and Fatah would not be able to agree on a fair division of the land, and yes Jewish settlers could be persuaded or forced to leave their homes if it was in the interests of the country as a whole.

But, the sting in the tail is Hamas, who are fundamentally opposed to the very existence of Israel, and view the entire land of Palestine as 'Islamic waqf', not an inch of which can be handed over under any circumstances. As a result they appear to be utterly implacable, and will inevitably do their utmost to ruin any peace deal which might be agreed upon between Israel and Fatah. Unless they can be persuaded to compromise on this issue, or be successfully reined in, I'm afraid that a peaceful resolution cannot be successfully achieved, because Hamas will find a way of spoiling it.

Edit: A bomb-proof wall is all well and good, but what about qassam rockets than can be fired over it? Worse still, if they were to get their hands on the type of rockets Hezbollah has, they could wreak appalling carnage from positions of safety behind the wall. Unfortunately there is no easy solution to the problems Hamas could cause.

Answer 2

The was between East and West Germany was not built by the Soviets to make things more peaceful - if anything in only led to create greater tensions between East and West (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall ). The Berlin only led to the deaths of the really innocent.

As for a wall in Israel dividing Israeli communities from West Bank Palestinian communities that has been tried and Palestinians have shown they do not respect or condone such a policy (even if it did seem to help lower suicide bombers). I don't believe that you can build a fence high enough to keep out Hamas rockets.

Good Luck!!!

Answer 3

Hi,

it's a good question. But please take into consideration that you can not compare the Berliner Wall with a wall separating the West Bank and Israel.
Sorry, to correct you, but the Berliner wall speparating West and East Germany did not made living conditions more peacefull. Before the Wall was build, Germany was one country and there was no war between West and Eastern Germans. It was just the opposite. The Berliner Wall did not make living conditions mor peacefull. People from East Germany tried to get into West Germany and got shot many times. This wall was not build to keep or bring peace to Germany, this wall was build to divide Germany!

The wall separating the West Bank and Israel is/will be build for Israel's protection (from Israel's view) and for separation from the Palestininan's view.

For me personal a wall is no resolution and will not solve any problem. It will just do the opposite and shows how helpless politicans are. Like: Let's build a wall and than there is peace. That will not work.

Only solution will be that BOTH sides try to find a way out of this dilemma and try to accept each other. Without taking sides..........when there are democratic elections and a party like Hamas (no judgement!) is freely elected, why is this not reckonized? What is the defination of democraty in this case?

Like I said before, I do not take any sides and I go by what you are asking for (civilized conversation without hateful comments).

Well, UN has to stay and a wall is no solution to the problem. People with common sense have to come up with something where parties who are willing to comprise can agree on.

Wish in this section some people would stop generalizing. In certain cases I might not agree with Israel's politics what does not mean that I have anything against Jews in general. On the other hand it would be a big relief if not all Muslims automatically be called suiced bombers and terrorist.

Thanks to you, Thabata and Michael who keep this section clean.

Sorry for any spelling mistakes but english is not my mother language.

You all take care!

Answer 4

I echo what 'h' says. Although in theory the wall sounds like a possible plan, ultimately there has to be dialogue, and then compromise - on the parts of both the Palestinians and the Israelis.

But if Israel can't have talks with Hamas, because Hamas will not recognize Israel, and if Fatah are as corrupt as everyone says, then precisely WHO is can Israel enter into negotiations with???

And yes, to pick up on a point made by 'h', Hamas was elected democratically. But they are still a terrorist organisation. If they would agree to recognize Israel, that would be a big step forwards.

EDIT - I've just read Gavriella's post: excellent points and really well said.

Answer 5

I was in the army when they started building it in 2003,
I know they stopped can't remember why...maybe because the palestinians appealed to courts in Israel, and because their are less suicide bombers and probably because the west bank wants peace with Israel at last.
The only thing I remember from the wall was hearing from people who worked there that they got paid so much because Israel was building it near palestinians and stuff I remember someone who took the Psychometry class with me telling me he got 20$(80 shekels) an hour, for basicly just sitting and guarding the wall being built. and that's just the guards so the workers probably were paid evan more, that's another reason Israel probabely stopped - shortage of money or the money had other priorities.

Edit: like I said it's just too much money (I saw a program on channel 2, that revealed that the wall is such an expensive project - like just getting one kilometer of the wall up with camers, and other detectors and the all the establishing of one kilometer is 2.5 million dollars without paying payroll expenses of workers, gaurds, machines etc. that's why I think it got slowed down or stopped. and because Israel doesn't need a fence if they have stopped the suicides, which they have after fatah has agreed to negotiate until we have peace, but now we have hamas to face... and we don't have a fence there.

Answer 6

A wall was and is being built over there, im not sure about it right now but i remember it was essentially annexing large parts of the west bank to israel just so they could include israeli settlements in "Israel proper"

The truth is that finite borders have not been estabilished.

Where does Israel end and palestine begin?

Well that is a matter of further discusions over the coming years.

But anywall must not essentially annexe large parts of the west bank atleast as it is today just for the sake of including a settlement.

And which UN borders do you speak of Hopeless zoo?

You mean the borders estabilished in 1948?

and to Londener in Israel yes i agree soemthing needs to be done about the rockets that can so easily fly obove anywall no matter how high.

Answer 7

h, you are amazing! I agree with you on most points. My answer to the question is this:

Between the years 1985-2000, Israel not only built a fence, it posted soldiers on a Southern-Lebanon securiy zone, working with the Lebanese army. And yet still, just over two years ago, I had to run to our bomb shelter for fear of getting hit by one of Hizbullah's kassam rockets. So a fence doesn't really help against people who want you demolished.
[Not everyone from the west bank are like that, but the fact is- a lot of the terrorists and suicide bombers come from Jenin, Shchem and Ramalla.]

Second point: I believe that the west bank is also part of Israel, and that the Arabs can own the other 99.9999% of the world that isn't Israeli. If west bank arabs can live peacefully with us, that's great. But an overwhelming number of them are dangerous to my wellbeing. So technically, why should the "settlers" have to move out of their houses? They're not hurting anyone. In fact, they're like strongholds that protect the rest of the country just by being there.

One more thing- there are walls, around specific villages. They've already caught many could-have-been terrorists. One must also pass through army-security when one goes across the green line. It's helped a lot, but terrorists still get through.

Answer 8

What wall? Throw the palesimians a bone- that is, a couple UN rice bags a week, that should sufficiently shut them up.

Answer 9

well the crazy people that hate the jews would bomb the wall daily they would wear the muslim human bomb suits and blow themselves up.

Answer 10

thats very unlikely since Israeli's want the palestinain land and have destroyed many palestinian homes and built jewish settlements there