Israel’s appetite for construction demolishes hope

Yet another wall reveal Israel's unquenched thirst for "security" at Palestinians' expense.

Visits by high-ranking US officials on missions relating to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process always seem to coincide with ominous announcements from the Israelis. It is no different this time around. John Kerry's latest trip to the region has been overshadowed by Israel's approval of more than 1,700 housing units in West Bank settlements. But more alarming is a report by the Maariv daily that Israeli authorities plan to build a wall between the Jordan Valley in the West Bank and Jordan.

The Jordan Valley has been a sticking point in negotiations for decades. And for good reason: the area is considered the breadbasket of the West Bank and, along with the northern Dead Sea, encompasses some 30 per cent of the entire West Bank. The Jordan Valley, except for a small area surrounding Jericho, is classified as “Area C”, as per the Oslo Accords, rendering it under full Israeli administrative and security control.

For many years Israel has worked slowly but diligently to rid the Jordan Valley, containing one of the richest water resources in the area, of its Palestinian residents.

While Israeli settlements and agriculture have flourished there, supported by government-provided access to water, electricity and funds, neighbouring Palestinian villagers struggled, their mere existence threatened by repeated demolitions and their ability to move and farm their land hindered by Israeli checkpoints or closed military zones.

In the West Bank, settlers' entrenchment is also supported by a web of civil infrastructure built by the Israeli state for Israelis' use, including a wall erected mostly inside Palestinian territory, parts of which are higher than the one built in Berlin during the Cold War. Once complete, this wall will be 708km long and will annex 530 sq km of Palestinian land (an area almost the size of Chicago). Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke of his "good fences make good neighbours" policy in January 2012. "When the security barrier along the Egyptian border is finished," he was quoted as saying at a weekly cabinet meeting, "one will be built along the border with Jordan".

Back then, reports said the structure would be 240km long, cost about $360 million (Dh1.32bn) to construct and be complete before the end of 2012. Last Sunday, in another cabinet meeting, the idea re-emerged after Mr Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s need for a “security framework”, which includes arrangements that ensure the “security border remains along the Jordan [river]”.

Fences, walls and even the idea of separation are nothing new and have been embraced, to varying degrees, by successive Israeli governments. It was Yigal Allon – a deputy prime minister between 1967 and 1969 – who specified the need to maintain sovereignty in the Jordan Valley to ensure "defensible borders" for Israel.

Once the barrier on the Egyptian border is complete, it is expected that Mr Netanyahu will announce the construction of another fence on the frontier with Jordan.

The looming spectre of Syria’s civil war is the official reason Israel gives for wanting to push ahead with the project. It is designed to assuage fears that Syrians seeking refuge in Jordan might infiltrate its borders, although there have been no reports of any such attempts being made since the Syrian crisis erupted.

This latest plan targeting the Jordan Valley has surfaced at a time when there has been no progress to speak of in the latest round of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. When the talks do fail – and it is hard to be even remotely optimistic about them – Israel will have the upper hand in any future border demarcations.

The Palestinian Authority's response to the Israeli plan has been timid at worst and pro forma at best: a short statement by a spokesman for PA president Mahmoud Abbas, calling Mr Netanyahu's plan a pre-emptive step to thwart Mr Kerry's visit. There was a plea to Washington to take a firm stand against this plan, at a time when settlement-building is at its highest level in a decade.

Of late, there have been many indications that Palestinian leaders of different factions – most of whom initially endorsed the idea of going back to the negotiating table with Israel – have retracted their support after growing weary of negotiating under these lopsided circumstances. But Mr Abbas seems to be determined to finish the remaining five months (out of nine) of talks he had promised Mr Kerry, leaving many wondering whether the PA has a political vision or if it’s merely kicking the can down the road to avoid being blamed for the talks’ eventual and inevitable failure.

The precise details of this new barrier have yet to be confirmed, but its construction will form the final link in the physical isolation of the Palestinian Territories.

In the meantime, Mr Netanyahu seems to be pushing for finalising further border fortifications in the Golan Heights.

This, coupled with the “Jordan barrier” and the “Egypt barrier,” ensures Israel – and with it, the Palestinians – are walled-in and that any future negotiations on borders will be stymied. Likewise, the gap between Israel’s demands and the minimum Palestinians can accept continues to grow.

The reality on the ground, drawn by settlements and barriers, is pressing hard against the success of these negotiations, and any others that rely on the same two-state formula that has failed miserably over the past two decades.

A fresh approach, with a different cast and a different script, will be needed to recalibrate the skewed interaction of Israel and the Palestinians.

Dalia Hatuqa is an independent journalist based in Ramallah

On Twitter: @daliahatuqa