Obscuring the effects of the wall

I recently posted about a UN report on the "separation barrier" being built by Israel in the West Bank. The report warned that 700,000 Palestinians would be harmed by the wall's construction and 14.5% of the West Bank would be annexed to Israel.

But, according to the News Butcher, this estimate "flagrantly obscures the planned extent of the wall by only considering wall segments that have been officially approved by the Israeli cabinet." In actuality,

Israeli Army recommendations, backed by settler council demands, indicate that the likely route of the wall will annex territory closer to the 40 to 50 percent range, according to Stop the Wall.

While the UN report, and US media reports, for example for the New York Times, focus on the western side of the wall, the elephant in the room is the eastern side of the wall, which has already begun construction southeast of Jenin near the town of Tayasir, according to Stop the Wall maps.

Because of the focus only on the cabinet-approved portions of the wall, few people in the US realize that the eventual wall is planned to completely enclose and greatly reduce Palestinian territory, not just separate it from the current Israeli territory.

So, to summarize, the situation is much worse than is being presented in the media.