ZGram - June 22, 2002 - "Segregation by default?"

irimland@zundelsite.org irimland@zundelsite.org
Thu, 20 Jun 2002 21:05:15 -0700


ZGRAM - WHERE TRUTH IS DESTINY

JUNE 22, 2002

GOOD MORNING FROM THE ZUNDELSITE;

Yep!  The're fencing themselves in - just like in the olden days! 
Did anyone say "Ghetto"?

[START]

Stop suicide bombers - by Adam Tanner

In politics, walls don't work.

Veterans from both sides of the Berlin Wall say Israel's $220 million 
(about R2 200 million) plan to erect 110km of fence along the West 
Bank will fail ultimately, much as the Cold-War divide through Berlin 
eventually crumbled.

Rudi Thurow helped build the Berlin Wall in 1961 as a border guard. A 
year later, he circumvented the wall he was supposed to be guarding 
and crawled through a tunnel to the West.

"One cannot solve problems through a wall, only through 
negotiations," he said. "If Israel has a wall, then some will build 
tunnels and go through them."

"The wall didn't keep us out at all. The attackers against Israel 
will do exactly the same. They can stem some of the terror, but some 
terrorists will still break through and commit attacks."

After Tuesday's suicide bombing in Jerusalem that killed 19 Israelis, 
Israel said it would accelerate the construction of a protective 
fence aimed at keep out attackers.

A symbol of oppression

Some are already calling it Israel's Berlin Wall, although there are 
clear differences in the two situations.

"The concern of the Israelis is understandable, but I think it is 
unsuitable," said Wolfgang Seiffert, who as a young East German 
Communist knew Erich Honecker, the man who supervised the Wall's 
construction and later became the country's hardline dictator.

"In the end, it never helps, as we saw with East Germany," said 
Seiffert. "It could bring stability in the beginning as in East 
Germany, but it will achieve nothing in the end."

Soviet-backed East Germany erected the 155km Berlin Wall in 1961 to 
stem a growing flow of refugees from East to West Germany. The 
concrete structure - reinforced by guards, automatic weapons and 
other defences - came to symbolise the oppression of the East bloc.

The new Israeli fence has unified Palestinians and some Israeli 
rightwingers in their opposition. Many Palestinians - like East 
Germans who worked in West Berlin and lost their jobs more than 40 
years ago - fear their lives could worsen by cutting off job 
opportunities on the other side of the barrier.

Some Israeli rightwingers say the fence could set a de facto border 
for a Palestinian state, weaken their claim to land captured in the 
1967 Middle East war and cut Jewish settlements off from Israel.

Verner Pike experienced the original Berlin Wall as a United States 
soldier at the famous Checkpoint Charlie in August 1961 and during 
the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation of US and Soviet tanks there 
several months later.

"Walls don't work," he said. "We learned that in Berlin, a long time ago."

"The people in the east looked and said this would secure us and make 
us feel better. It didn't work for them. It's not going to work for 
the Israelis. It's sad that they are even discussing something like 
that."

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(source: 
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Middle_East/0,1113,2-10-35_1201671,00.html 
)