SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Israel Plans Wall for Egypt Border
Jan 11, 2010
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has approved plans to erect a wall along part of Israel's border with Egypt.
Announcing his decision to include advanced surveillance equipment
on the new barrier, Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday it would
keep "infiltrators and terrorists" out.
"This is a strategic decision to secure Israel's Jewish and democratic character," Netanyahu said.
Thousands of African and other migrants have come to Israel through
its desert border with Egypt over the last few years, fleeing conflict
back home or searching for a better life in Israel.
The
PM added that while his country would continue to accept refugees from
conflict zones, "we cannot let tens of thousands of illegal workers
infiltrate into Israel through the southern border and inundate our
country with illegal aliens".
Illegal labour immigration
Alon Liel, a professor at the University of Tel Aviv and former
director-general of the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs, said the
wave of illegal labour immigration is Israel's "most worrying" issue.
"Once they are here, its very difficult to expel them. It's creating a social problem," he told Al Jazeera.
"Along this border, the issue of labour immigrants is number one.
Number two is security and number three is smuggling. If you put the
three together you understand the worries."
But he also said the construction of another wall would not be "a very pleasant feeling" for Israelis.
"About 50 to 60 per cent of our borders are already sealed. We are
surrounded by fences along our border with Lebanon, Jordan, most of the
West Bank, all of Gaza.
"It's a very unpleasant feeling, but for the Israeli public the alternative to not having a fence seems worse."
The project will cost $270 million and take two years to complete,
but the barrier will not be erected along the whole border - which is
266 km long.
Egyptian view
Egyptian security sources in North Sinai said Israel had not informed the Egyptian authorities of its plan.
One
security source said the project was an internal Israeli matter "which
Egypt has nothing to do with as long as the fence is built on Israeli
soil".
Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Husam Zaki said the ministry would issue a statement on the plan on Monday.
Egyptian police have stepped up efforts in recent months to control
the frontier with Israel following an increase in human trafficking
through Egypt.
At least 17 migrants have been shot dead as they tried to enter Israel by Egyptian police since May 2009.
The wall along Israel's southern border is separate from a 670km barrier that cuts off Israel from large parts of the West Bank.
Israel has said that wall, much of which was built on Palestinian
land, is designed to keep out suicide bombers, but Palestinians say it
is an Israeli land grab.
Rafah wall
The announcement of the wall at Israel's southern border comes after
increased tensions among Palestinians over another wall, on the Rafah
border with Egypt.
Egypt says it is constructing the wall along its border with the Gaza Strip to defend against threats to national security.
That barrier is believed to consist of a series of steel sheets and
pipes that will be buried deep into the ground to prevent the
construction of smuggling tunnels under the 14km frontier.
Israel has repeatedly complained that Egypt has not done enough to
prevent smuggling into Gaza through such tunnels, which it says are
used to supply Hamas with explosives and arms.
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza, said the
construction of such walls "paint a grim picture" for the people in
Gaza.
"Last week when the tensions on the Egypt-Gaza border began to rise
as a result of the increased speculation of Egypt's construction of
this wall, people here [became] extremely anxious," he said.
"You juxtapose that in terms of the humanitarian aspect coupled with
the daily airstrikes and you get a very explosive situation in Gaza."
Source:
Agencies
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has approved plans to erect a wall along part of Israel's border with Egypt.
Announcing his decision to include advanced surveillance equipment
on the new barrier, Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday it would
keep "infiltrators and terrorists" out.
"This is a strategic decision to secure Israel's Jewish and democratic character," Netanyahu said.
Thousands of African and other migrants have come to Israel through
its desert border with Egypt over the last few years, fleeing conflict
back home or searching for a better life in Israel.
The
PM added that while his country would continue to accept refugees from
conflict zones, "we cannot let tens of thousands of illegal workers
infiltrate into Israel through the southern border and inundate our
country with illegal aliens".
Illegal labour immigration
Alon Liel, a professor at the University of Tel Aviv and former
director-general of the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs, said the
wave of illegal labour immigration is Israel's "most worrying" issue.
"Once they are here, its very difficult to expel them. It's creating a social problem," he told Al Jazeera.
"Along this border, the issue of labour immigrants is number one.
Number two is security and number three is smuggling. If you put the
three together you understand the worries."
But he also said the construction of another wall would not be "a very pleasant feeling" for Israelis.
"About 50 to 60 per cent of our borders are already sealed. We are
surrounded by fences along our border with Lebanon, Jordan, most of the
West Bank, all of Gaza.
"It's a very unpleasant feeling, but for the Israeli public the alternative to not having a fence seems worse."
The project will cost $270 million and take two years to complete,
but the barrier will not be erected along the whole border - which is
266 km long.
Egyptian view
Egyptian security sources in North Sinai said Israel had not informed the Egyptian authorities of its plan.
One
security source said the project was an internal Israeli matter "which
Egypt has nothing to do with as long as the fence is built on Israeli
soil".
Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Husam Zaki said the ministry would issue a statement on the plan on Monday.
Egyptian police have stepped up efforts in recent months to control
the frontier with Israel following an increase in human trafficking
through Egypt.
At least 17 migrants have been shot dead as they tried to enter Israel by Egyptian police since May 2009.
The wall along Israel's southern border is separate from a 670km barrier that cuts off Israel from large parts of the West Bank.
Israel has said that wall, much of which was built on Palestinian
land, is designed to keep out suicide bombers, but Palestinians say it
is an Israeli land grab.
Rafah wall
The announcement of the wall at Israel's southern border comes after
increased tensions among Palestinians over another wall, on the Rafah
border with Egypt.
Egypt says it is constructing the wall along its border with the Gaza Strip to defend against threats to national security.
That barrier is believed to consist of a series of steel sheets and
pipes that will be buried deep into the ground to prevent the
construction of smuggling tunnels under the 14km frontier.
Israel has repeatedly complained that Egypt has not done enough to
prevent smuggling into Gaza through such tunnels, which it says are
used to supply Hamas with explosives and arms.
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza, said the
construction of such walls "paint a grim picture" for the people in
Gaza.
"Last week when the tensions on the Egypt-Gaza border began to rise
as a result of the increased speculation of Egypt's construction of
this wall, people here [became] extremely anxious," he said.
"You juxtapose that in terms of the humanitarian aspect coupled with
the daily airstrikes and you get a very explosive situation in Gaza."
Source:
Agencies
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has approved plans to erect a wall along part of Israel's border with Egypt.
Announcing his decision to include advanced surveillance equipment
on the new barrier, Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday it would
keep "infiltrators and terrorists" out.
"This is a strategic decision to secure Israel's Jewish and democratic character," Netanyahu said.
Thousands of African and other migrants have come to Israel through
its desert border with Egypt over the last few years, fleeing conflict
back home or searching for a better life in Israel.
The
PM added that while his country would continue to accept refugees from
conflict zones, "we cannot let tens of thousands of illegal workers
infiltrate into Israel through the southern border and inundate our
country with illegal aliens".
Illegal labour immigration
Alon Liel, a professor at the University of Tel Aviv and former
director-general of the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs, said the
wave of illegal labour immigration is Israel's "most worrying" issue.
"Once they are here, its very difficult to expel them. It's creating a social problem," he told Al Jazeera.
"Along this border, the issue of labour immigrants is number one.
Number two is security and number three is smuggling. If you put the
three together you understand the worries."
But he also said the construction of another wall would not be "a very pleasant feeling" for Israelis.
"About 50 to 60 per cent of our borders are already sealed. We are
surrounded by fences along our border with Lebanon, Jordan, most of the
West Bank, all of Gaza.
"It's a very unpleasant feeling, but for the Israeli public the alternative to not having a fence seems worse."
The project will cost $270 million and take two years to complete,
but the barrier will not be erected along the whole border - which is
266 km long.
Egyptian view
Egyptian security sources in North Sinai said Israel had not informed the Egyptian authorities of its plan.
One
security source said the project was an internal Israeli matter "which
Egypt has nothing to do with as long as the fence is built on Israeli
soil".
Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Husam Zaki said the ministry would issue a statement on the plan on Monday.
Egyptian police have stepped up efforts in recent months to control
the frontier with Israel following an increase in human trafficking
through Egypt.
At least 17 migrants have been shot dead as they tried to enter Israel by Egyptian police since May 2009.
The wall along Israel's southern border is separate from a 670km barrier that cuts off Israel from large parts of the West Bank.
Israel has said that wall, much of which was built on Palestinian
land, is designed to keep out suicide bombers, but Palestinians say it
is an Israeli land grab.
Rafah wall
The announcement of the wall at Israel's southern border comes after
increased tensions among Palestinians over another wall, on the Rafah
border with Egypt.
Egypt says it is constructing the wall along its border with the Gaza Strip to defend against threats to national security.
That barrier is believed to consist of a series of steel sheets and
pipes that will be buried deep into the ground to prevent the
construction of smuggling tunnels under the 14km frontier.
Israel has repeatedly complained that Egypt has not done enough to
prevent smuggling into Gaza through such tunnels, which it says are
used to supply Hamas with explosives and arms.
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza, said the
construction of such walls "paint a grim picture" for the people in
Gaza.
"Last week when the tensions on the Egypt-Gaza border began to rise
as a result of the increased speculation of Egypt's construction of
this wall, people here [became] extremely anxious," he said.
"You juxtapose that in terms of the humanitarian aspect coupled with
the daily airstrikes and you get a very explosive situation in Gaza."
Source:
Agencies
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.