Israeli fence 'will harm one in three Palestinians'

According to Justin Huggler of the Independent, a new report by the UN warns that Israel's construction of the "separation barrier" in the West Bank has "severe humanitarian consequences" for nearly 700,000 Palestinians.

More than 274,000 will be stranded outside the wall because Israel refuses to build it along the internationally recognised Green Line. Thousands will be forced to apply for Israeli military permits to live in their own homes.

But the consequences will reach further, the report warns. A further 400,000 Palestinians will be cut off from their farmland, their jobs, universities and schools. "This means that approximately 680,000 - 30 per cent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank - will be directly harmed by the wall," the UN said in a report.

The "fence" - a series of concrete walls, deep trenches and double fences fitted with electronic sensors - has attracted international condemnation. Palestinians call it "Israel's Berlin Wall". Even the US, Israel's main ally, says it is not happy with the route. Israel says the purpose is to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers and other attackers crossing into Israel.

Only 11 per cent of the route approved so far runs along the Green Line, according to yesterday's UN report. The result is that 210,000 acres, or 14.5 per cent of the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, will be cut off from the rest of the West Bank by the wall.

In other words, this is a blatant land grab. Or, as James Brooks says, "a vehicle for the more rapid and overt methods of large-scale ethnic cleansing."