David's Update from Palestine

#WestBank #SeperationWall #Palestine (Copyright David Bland)

#WestBank #SeperationWall #Palestine (Copyright David Bland)

David Bland's update from Palestine today:
"Better day today. A bit cooler. We helped a family close to Bethlehem with their olive harvest. Much of the local agricultural land had been taken over by an illegal Israeli settlement. This farmer had been denied access to his land for 5 years, but now he can farm his land again. His trees are regularly attacked by the adjacent settlers, 120 times in the last 3 years. Once the apartheid wall is complete he may again loose access to his land.

"This afternoon we had a talk about the geopolitical situation. The apartheid wall is annexing large parts of the West Bank onto the Israeli side. The wall is supposed to be for security, but vehicles passing checkpoints are rarely ever stopped. It would be easy for someone to mount an attack from the West Bank, but it doesn't happen. The wall is just a tool for gaining an additional 12% of the west bank as Israeli territory, making life so bad for residents that they choose to leave. There is a term for this - it is ethnic cleansing."