Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman)

Israel wants walls, not peace. Stopthewall.org calls its walls “an integral part of the Zionist project to remove Palestinians from Palestine” - continuing decades of ethnic cleansing.

The organization calls for dismantling what’s been built, halting future construction, returning confiscated lands to their rightful owners, and fully compensating them for damages and lost income.

Israel is the only nation without declared borders, the only one surrounding itself with walls - built to steal land and enforce repression, not for security as claimed.

Palestinian communities are encircled, isolated from each other. Landowners and residents in areas between the wall and so-called Green Line (the Seam Zone) need permits to access their homes and farmland.

Israel wants Palestinians confined to bantustans on worthless scrubland, valued areas for exclusive Jewish use and development.

Gaza already is surrounded by walls and razor wire, including a 300 - 600 meter buffer zone on valued agricultural land, off-limits to its owners, violators at risk of being lethally shot, young children as vulnerable as adults.

A new underground wall along its border with Israel is planned. Hamas called constructing it “a declaration of war…another step to escalate (illegal) siege”- solely for political reasons, not security.

“Hamas will not allow Israel to conduct its plans and crimes against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and will prevent the construction of the barrier with all possible means,” a statement added.

IDF General Eyal Zamir said Israel won’t “shy away from another confrontation should Gaza’s rulers choose to launch one.”

“If Hamas chooses to go to war over the barrier, it will be a worthy reason to go to war. But the barrier will be built.”

Israel bore full responsibility for three wars on the Strip since December 2008 - each launched preemptively, flagrant acts of aggression.

Another, if forthcoming, will be more of the same - Hamas wrongfully blamed for Israel’s highest of high crimes. Given its deplorable history, another war seems inevitable sooner or later - a fabricated pretext used as justification like earlier.

Reportedly the new wall will extend dozens of meters below ground, topped by a six meter-high security fence above ground.

High-tech equipment will be able to detect underground tunnels, locating them for demolition, anyone inside at the time buried alive under rubble.

Gaza’s tunnels are a vital lifeline, not intended to infiltrate and harm Israel. They supply essential goods otherwise not available or in scant supply because of Israel’s illegal blockade.

They sustain life. Months of high-risk labor go into building them. Israel wants them destroyed to increase Palestinian suffering.

A Gaza engineer earlier said “(w)e did not choose to” build them. “But it was too hard for us to stand still during the siege and expect war and poverty.”

Gazans yearn to be free. They represent core Palestinian resistance. Risking death below ground building tunnels shows their spirit to survive, refusing to let Israeli ruthlessness defeat them.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."