Mr. Rossell states that the Israeli government is justified in erecting a wall in order to protect the Israeli people from Palestinian terrorist groups, and that it is a step towards peace. Unfortunately, the wall will not curtail the violence and injustice of the Israeli government against the Palestinian people.
Rossell contends that life will be easier for Palestinians because the wall will circumvent the need for a large Israeli presence in the West Bank, but he provides no evidence to support the alleged Israeli intention to withdraw its soldiers. He tries to show the overwhelming humanitarianism of the Israeli government due to its offer of compensation to farmers who will no longer be able to get to their fields. However, the loss of his ancestral land and a one-time compensation does not put food in the mouths of a farmer’s children month after month after month. But, like Rossel says, “the Palestinians have to make compromises as well.”
In reality, the wall will only increase the sense of frustration and the difficulties already facing a besieged population. It was not a rare thing, even before the wall, for Palestinian mothers to die in labor before ever reaching hospitals because of being deliberately held up at checkpoints. This wall will only increase cruel tragedies such as these. A U.N. report released just this month states that almost the entire group of refugees referred to Jerusalem for medical attention will have to cross the wall, not to mention a large number of Palestinian medical professionals.
The best defense against violence born of desperation is not another wall; it is the simple dispensation of justice to people.