Bethlehem, 04-05-07: South African Minister for Intelligence Services Ronnie Kasrils labelled Israel‘s extensive network of movement restrictions, including the Wall, military checkpoints, settler-only roads, land confiscations and closures, as being "worse than Apartheid." He made the comments on a tour of the Wall in Bethlehem‘s Aida refugee camp on Friday, led by Palestinian Minister of Information Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi. The camp lies at the edge of Bethlehem city which has been surrounded by the Wall, imprisoning its residents in an extended ghetto.
Mr. Kasrils, a long-standing member of the African National Congress, the movement whose decades-long popular struggle ultimately brought an end to Apartheid in South Africa, drew parallels between the South African fight for independence, and the Palestinian struggle to end Israel‘s occupation and to achieve an autonomous, viable and contiguous Palestinian state.
He called on the Palestinian government and the Palestinian people to remain united in their struggle to remove Israel‘s system of Apartheid and to achieve freedom and independence. He also urged the international community to act in ending both the political and economic siege imposed on the Palestinians and the Occupation, which will enter its 40th year in 2007.
Minister of Information Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi added by highlighting that Israel‘s Apartheid Wall has been designed to annex swathes of Palestinian land to Israel including prime agricultural land and key water resources, and not to ensure security as Israel claims. He stressed that the Wall has not only separated Israelis from Palestinians, but Palestinians from Palestinians. The Minister branded the Wall was an extension of Israel‘s policy of ethnic cleansing to drive Palestinians from their land, a campaign that dates back to 1948 when the State of Israel was officially created.
Dr. Barghouthi also emphasised the importance of unity in the Palestinian struggle to end the occupation, and drew attention to four means through which construction of the Wall can be challenged:
- By expanding the kind of mass, non-violent protests against the Wall like those in Bil‘in and Um Salamona to 70 areas affected by the Wall throughout the West Bank;
- By building the international solidarity movement advocating an end to the Wall and to the occupation;
- By using the tools of international law to bring Israel to justice, including the 2004 International Court of Justice ruling which declared the Wall illegal; and
- By prioritising support for areas affected by the Wall by the Palestinian government, and ensuring unity among the Palestinian people.
The Bethlehem Wall, stretching up to 15 km in length, is segregating more than 1,800 hectares of Palestinian land. Since 1967, more than 1,400 hectares have been confiscated due to the establishment and expansion of Jewish-Israeli settlements built in the area.