The old saying, “Good fences make good neighbors,” is about to be put to the ultimate test between Israelis and Arabs. In June, Israel began construction of a security fence intended to divide the majority of the Israeli population from the majority of the Palestinian population.
The first part of the fence, which is to eventually stretch 345 kilometers, is being erected along the north-south border of the Palestinian-controlled West Bank. The plan is for the completed fence to run roughly parallel to Israel’s old “Green Line”—the border marking the area that Israel won in its 1948 War of Independence. The fence, which will cost approximately $1 million per kilometer to build, will actually take various forms, including ditches, razor wire, concrete barricades and electric fences monitored with cameras and sensors, as well as existing defensive walls.
The idea of constructing a fence to separate Arabs and Israelis is not a new one, although it has become popular in the past 20 months of bloody terror and retaliation since the beginning of the latest Palestinian intifada. More than 200 Israelis have been killed in about 70 suicide bombings in the past 21 months. The simple logic behind the fence is to protect Israeli citizens by preventing Palestinian terrorist bombers from entering Israeli populations.
While opinion polls show that at least 80 percent of Israelis favor the idea, the fence is angrily opposed by conservative Israelis who fear that it will result in the West Bank being designated as the beginning of an independent Palestinian state.
It is also opposed by the Palestinians (Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has denounced the building project as a “sinful” act of “racism” and “apartheid”), and by the approximately 200,000 Israeli settlers who live within territory that was designated Palestinian-controlled as a result of the Oslo accord.
Do fences between peoples work? There is evidence that, to some extent at least, they do. The fortified fence separating the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip from Israel has been successful, according to those pushing for a similar West Bank fence. They point out that none of the suicide bombers claiming Israeli lives since late September 2000 have originated in Gaza.
Constructing a massive physical barrier is a radical measure taken after months of efforts at diplomacy have proved utterly fruitless. Will this be a lasting solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict? Perhaps it will provide some relief from violence. But, as journalist Jeff Hoffman writes, “Let there be no illusions—the visceral hatred and learned prejudice is so deep, that it may take a generation to pass [after the fence is built] before Israelis and Palestinians can begin to treat each other with dignity and respect” (www .israelinsider.com, April 23).
Unfortunately, a fence cannot solve this basic problem of hatred. That would take a complete change of mind, heart and nature on behalf of Israel’s enemies and removal of the spirit which inspires the hatred.
Israel will ultimately have to look to their God for that real and permanent solution to be enacted.