The New York Times today has a top-of-the-front-page article about tens of thousands of Palestinians managing to get over or through “what Israelis call the security barrier” to work without papers inside Israel. It is a vivid account of smuggling workers into Israel from Palestine.
On the one hand, the article by James Glanz and Rami Nazzal, marks real progress: the Times is showing that the wall is not really a security barrier — 55,000 Palestinians legally pass through it and 30-60,000 illegally. If Palestinians really want to kill Israelis, the wall is no obstacle at all.
The industry offers economic benefits for everyone involved: Palestinian workers earn double or quadruple the wages they can in the West Bank; Israeli contractors and restaurant owners pay less for illegal labor than for Palestinians with permits . . .
There are currently about 55,000 Palestinians with permits working legally in Israel . . .
Estimates vary widely on the number of illegal workers. Mr. [Khalil] Shikaki said 30,000 was a reasonable guess; Mr. Nuriel said it was closer to 60,000, depending on the time of year.
The article makes clear that only the tiniest fraction of those who come in to Israel come in to attack; 99.9999 percent come to work. Thus the article exposes the lie that the wall has stopped attacks on Israelis. There are no attacks because Palestinians are choosing by and large not to resort to violence to counter the occupation. And the two societies are interdependent.
So why the wall?
That’s the big flaw in the article. It doesn’t address the political purposes of the wall: to grab as much Palestinian land with maximum Jews on it. The wall travels for most of its course to the east of the Green Line, taking Palestinian territory and protecting illegal Israeli settlements/colonies to its west. It is a de facto apartheid border. And just in case you missed that point, Dennis Ross, the former White House negotiator, said last week in New York that Israel should take measures to hold on to all the land to the west of the wall, leaving the other 93 percent of the West Bank to Palestinians for a state, some day. Will Palestinians really want the leftovers? That’s 93 percent of 22 percent of the original 100 percent of mandatory Palestine; and they are cut off from Jerusalem, which this article inaccurately treats as Israeli territory.
“Israeli contractors and restaurant owners pay less for illegal labor than for Palestinians with permits”
The Corporate Masters in America prefer illegal workers for the same reason. Hence the Republicans stall a comprehensive immigration plan, just like the Israelis stall a comprehensive peace plan. Same game, different name. The religious angle is just a cover story and excuse.
The primary purpose of the “security barrier” is to facilitate Israel’s attempt to keep as much of the West Bank as possible, permanently. George W. Bush failed to insist that the wall be built along the Green Line, and not hither and thither all over the West Bank.
The first figures I saw were Israeli which estimated 30,000 to 50,000 Palestinian workers crossed each day. This range isn’t out of the ballpark with that.
It was never a security fence. It doesn’t provide any security unless it reads minds and stops those with certain intentions.
It is a land and it is a apartheid. It is a crime. Israel is a rogue state. BDS until the Palestinians get accountability, justice and recompense.
In my opinion its just an apartheid era piece showing how great ‘israel’ is for the Palestinians How the ‘primitive’ natives rely on their white oppressors to survive
Haven`t been to JSIL since the wall was built. The picture accompanying the article presumably on the Occupied Territories side shows a pretty brutal , ugly and incongruous facade (sums up the architects really). Others on the Occupied side which I have seen show lots of Palestinian Independence slogans and “Banksy” type murals. I wonder what it is like generally on the JSILi side. Can`t imagine the extra suffering and horror those poor eternally victimised terrorised delegitimised anti semitised people have to endure with their pretty little gardens facing ugly concrete slabs. Or have they spruced it up with inspirational Chosen People Biblical murals etc. Oh the price they are forced to pay for being the only democracy in the Levant!
BOYCOTT UGLY APARTHEID ISRAEL
SUPPORT BDS
TELL YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS ABOUT BDS