{"id":1317,"date":"2010-07-13T23:59:08","date_gmt":"2010-07-13T22:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/?p=1317"},"modified":"2011-05-18T13:52:05","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T12:52:05","slug":"walajeh-this-is-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/2010\/07\/13\/walajeh-this-is-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Walajeh &#8211; this is wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"tweet_button86\" style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/2010\/07\/13\/walajeh-this-is-wrong\/\" data-text=\"Walajeh - this is wrong - Ray Cook - As I See It\" data-count=\"horizontal\" data-lang=\"en\" data-via=\"tweetbutton\"  data-related=\"coderplus:Wordpress Tips and more.\"><\/a><\/div><div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 5px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/view.picapp.com\/pictures.photo\/news\/palestinian-workers-queue\/image\/8633971?term=separation+barrier\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Palestinian Workers Queue Before Dawn To Cross Into Israel\" onmousedown=\"return false;\" src=\"http:\/\/view4.picapp.com\/pictures.photo\/image\/8633971\/palestinian-workers-queue\/palestinian-workers-queue.jpg?size=234&amp;imageId=8633971\" border=\"0\" alt=\"AL TUR, WEST BANK - APRIL 25: Palestinian workers wait for their employer to collect them after crossing into Israel on April 25, 2010 at the Olives Crossing in Al Tur, West Bank, a few kilometers north east of Jerusalem. West Bank workers queue before dawn to cross the separation barrier into Israel to be permitted to work on the Israeli side of the fence which divides the suburb which once formed part of Jerusalem. (Photo by Uriel Sinai\/Getty Images)\" width=\"234\" height=\"156\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><script src=\"http:\/\/view.picapp.com\/\/JavaScripts\/OTIjs.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script>The Jerusalem Post had a <a href=\"http:\/\/\" target=\"_blank\">story<\/a> yesterday about how a Palestinian village is being surrounded by Israel&#8217;s West Bank security wall which is squeezing the village towards an almost certain death.<\/p>\n<p>Surely this is wrong.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>The  barrier threatens to outright smother Walajeh: The community of about  2,000 on the southwest edge of Jerusalem is to be completely encircled  by a fence cutting it off from most of its open land, according to a  Defense Ministry map.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>the  loop runs tightly around Walajeh\u2019s builtup area, penning it within less  than a square mile and isolating it from almost all its farmlands. Of 36  Palestinian villages that are or will be caught in the seam zone, none  are as closely encircled as Walajeh, said Ray Dolphin, a UN barrier  expert in Jerusalem.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Sadly, the security barrier is necessary to protect Israelis, but surely more can be done for the Palestinians affected by it.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Ahmed  Barghouti, 63, who lives close to the fence\u2019s path, says he lost 88  olive trees last month and now fears for a nearby family burial plot.  The village\u2019s lawyer, Ghiath Nasser, says he won a temporary order to  stop work on that section until the High Court of Justice decides what  should be done with the graves of Barghouti\u2019s parents and grandmother.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The  house of a neighbor, Omar Hajajla, lies just outside Walajeh\u2019s barrier  loop.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Hajajla said Israeli officials last week informed him his  home would be surrounded by its own electric fence.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><em><\/em><em>\u201cThis is like  putting my entire family in jail,\u201d the father of three young boys said.  \u201cMy children need to cross four gates to go school. We don\u2019t know how  it will work out, but I\u2019m sure it will be hell for my entire family.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Some will argue that if the Palestinians had chosen peace the barrier and the many issues emanating from its construction would have been unnecessary.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s stories such as this which undermine Israel&#8217;s international standing and fuel the &#8216;apartheid&#8217; slur and provide oxygen to those who want to destroy chances of peace.<\/p>\n<p>These are difficult issues, \u00a0and although I understand the reasons for the barrier, the emiseration of the lives of these particular villagers is not something Israel or its suppporters, myself included, can be proud of.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe someone could enlighten me and persuade me that this is necessary and there is no alternative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"tweet_button86\" style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/2010\/07\/13\/walajeh-this-is-wrong\/\" data-text=\"Walajeh - this is wrong - Ray Cook - As I See It\" data-count=\"horizontal\" data-lang=\"en\" data-via=\"tweetbutton\"  data-related=\"coderplus:Wordpress Tips and more.\"><\/a><\/div><p>The Jerusalem Post had a story yesterday about how a Palestinian village is being surrounded by Israel&#8217;s West Bank security wall which is squeezing the village towards an almost certain death. Surely this is wrong. The barrier threatens to outright smother Walajeh: The community of about 2,000 on the southwest edge of Jerusalem is to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[223],"tags":[201,584,583],"class_list":["post-1317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-israel-palestine","tag-palestine","tag-security-wall","tag-walajeh","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1317"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1319,"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317\/revisions\/1319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raymondcook.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}