THE Israeli Cabinet decided last Sunday to extend the route of the Zionists’ illegal ‘Security Wall’ to grab a large chunk of Palestinian East Jerusalem.
About 230,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem where major roads lead to the Palestinian occupied territories on the West Bank.
Both East Jerusalem and the West Bank have been illegally occupied by Israel since the 1967 ‘Six Days War, according to the United Nations (UN) and its International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The Wall’s revised route will mean that a quarter of East Jerusalem’s population, 55,000 Palestinians, will be cut off from the rest of their people in the city and the West Bank.
It will cut off two Palestinian neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem and the large Qalandiya Refugee Camp.
This is another major draconian attack on the Palestinians and their rights, with Sharon rushing to complete this section of the Wall by this September.
The ICJ has already condemned Israel for the fact that the Wall has already been used to rob the Palestinians of large areas of the West Bank, incorporating large illegal Zionist settlements and their access roads into Israel.
Palestine National Authority Chief Negotiator, Saeb Erekat, has condemned the project declaring: ‘This is a very critical development which has the potential to destroy the entire peace process.’
He added: ‘With this step, they are trying to decide the fate of Jerusalem. We are urging the Bush administration to stop Israel dictating the situation and from imposing unilateral measures.’
It is certainly true that Sharon’s regime is determined to create a situation ‘on the ground’ to annex the whole of Jerusalem, which it declares is the capital of the Zionist entity of Israel, a policy backed by Washington.
Alongside this, the Israeli government is turning Gaza into one huge concentration camp for the 1.4m Palestinians there and grabbing huge areas of the West Bank for its settlements and military roads.
The Palestinians will be left with ‘Bantustans’ in Gaza and different regions of the West Bank, and confront ethnic cleansing of the historic Palestinian city of Jerusalem to rid it of its indigenous population.
Sharon’s regime has made it clear that it is not interested in the latest ‘peace process’. Since it was set up Israel has always been a militarist entity and Sharon is championing this strategy.
Today the Zionists are stepping up their attacks on the Palestinians and threatening neighbouring states like Lebanon and Syria, strategies backed by US imperialism and serving its interests. Tel Aviv and Washington have both got Lebanon and Syria in their sights.
Erekat should know that appeals to Bush to rein in his Zionist thug Sharon will fall on deaf ears.
The only way to destroy Israel’s Wall and go forward to a state of Palestine, with its capital in Jerusalem, is through the victory of the Palestinian people’s Second (Al Aqsa) Intifada, which began five years ago.
Their struggle is gaining more and more allies every day.
The Iraqi resistance is going from strength to strength in its fight to end the US-British occupation and drive the imperialists out.
The peoples of Lebanon and Syria are determined to stand up to the threats of both the US master and its Zionist servant.
In the US, Britain and other European countries, the organised working-class movement has a duty to come to the aid of the Palestinian people facing ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem.
The British trade union movement has on many occasions declared its support for the Palestinian people.
Now it must mobilise mass industrial and political action to bring down the Blair government, which backs the Israeli regime and refuses to lift a finger to free Palestine from Zionist occupation.
