Submitted by crinadmin on
[LONDON, 7 July 2006] - Two years after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advised that Israel’s separation wall should be taken down, two members of the International Save the Children Alliance working in the Occupied Palestinian Territories report that Palestinian children still fear the wall and talk forcefully about its negative impacts on their lives. The Israeli government began construction of the wall five years ago. Built almost entirely on West Bank lands, the wall is over twice as long as the 1967 border with Israel. Snaking around populated areas along the border, the Wall encroaches upon nearly 22 kilometers of Palestinian land in the West Bank. The wall is eight metres high, twice the height of the Berlin Wall, and made of cement. In other areas it is an electrified metal fence with trenches, patrol roads, razor wire and motion sensors on each side. Palestinian children have told Save the Children that the wall prevents them from going to school, from seeing their family and friends, and from getting health care. They said they feel insecure and afraid of it, and that their families are poorer and have lost their lands because of it. In Nazlet Issa, a village in the northern part of the West Bank, children have been experiencing the impact of the wall since 2002. The wall was constructed in the middle of the village, separating families and neighbours, preventing people from going to work, and children from going to schools. 14-year-old Basma said: "This wall takes [away] our simple rights. There are many children who have these rights, but we don't have the right to visit family or people outside the village, or go to parks or the zoo or to the pool. Our life starts to look like wishes…". Palestinian children call on the world to "remove this wall because it steals our freedom". On the two-year anniversary of the ICJ ruling, members of the International Save the Children Alliance urge the Israeli government to heed the experience of Palestinian children, and to act on the advice of the ICJ to immediately stop construction of the wall and dismantle the sections already in existence. Further information