After a nearly yearlong uprising with no end in sight, growing numbers of Israelis believe that a negotiated peace with their Palestinian neighbors can never be reached. Their solution: “unilateral separation,” a proposal popularized by former prime minister Ehud Barak that is finding wide support across Israel’s political spectrum. According to a recent poll, 60 percent of Israelis now believe the government should withdraw its troops and settlers from the West Bank, build a high wall or fence along the Green Line and eliminate nearly all political and commercial ties with the Palestinians. The idea gained new momentum last month after a suicide bomber from the West Bank town of Jenin snuck across Israel’s porous border and blew up a Jerusalem pizzeria, killing 16. As the debate heats up, many citizens and local councils aren’t waiting. They’re allocating their own funds to build walls and fences intended to divide them permanently from their Arab neighbors.
The problem is, walling off the West Bank would be a logistical nightmare. Unlike the flat and sandy Gaza Strip (whose 30-mile boundary is surrounded by a nearly impenetrable fence), the West Bank’s border zigzags through mountains and canyons. Engineers say the barrier would have to cover hundreds of miles of often rough terrain. But the real challenges are political. Any plan to wall Israel’s borders would mean evacuating dozens of isolated Jewish settlements and tens of thousands of people across the West Bank, a move certain to infuriate Israel’s powerful right wing. “I don’t see any government in the foreseeable future giving up settlements without a peace agreement,” says Brig. Gen. Shlomo Brom. It would also mean resurrecting the barricades and fences that divided Jerusalem before 1967, turning the holy city into another Belfast or Beirut.
Despite widespread skepticism, the Israeli government is helping fund a 38-mile-long fence through some of the most vulnerable towns along the Green Line in northern Israel. And the Ministry of Defense is laying plans for a massive barrier that could blanket 60 percent of the territory, running through fields and uprooting forests. “You have to decide between quality of life or people’s lives,” says spokesman Shlomo Dror. “You can understand which one we’re choosing.”
