Separation barrier

Israeli separation barrier at Abu Dis, near eastern Jerusalem, separates two neighborhoods that are predominantly Arab. June 2004.

The term separation barrier refers to a wall or fence constructed to limit the movement of people across a certain line or border, or to separate two populations. These structures vary in placement with regard to international borders and topography.

The term originated to describe the various fences, walls and other barriers Israel created to separate Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza from Israel, to separate various Palestinian towns and villages within the occupied territories from each other, as well as to separate Egypt from Israel.

The term "separation barrier" also has been applied to other such walls or fences.

Current separation barriers

Cyprus

Since the 1974 Turkey has constructed and maintains a separation barrier of 300 kilometres (190 mi) along the 1974 Green Line (or ceasefire line) dividing the Republic of Cyprus into two parts along the United Nations Buffer Zone.

India

Since the mid-1990s, India has been involved in the construction of some of the lengthiest separation barriers along its international borders. Six of the nine countries neighboring India are classified as Least Developed Countries. As a consequence, thousands of people from these countries, especially from Bangladesh, Nepal and Burma, illegally immigrate into India.

The Indo-Bangladeshi barrier and Indo-Burma barrier are being built to check smuggling, illegal immigration stealing Indian jobs and possible infiltration by Islamist terrorists. The refugee crisis could also ensue should a climate catastrophe ravage South Asia.

In addition, India completed the construction of the Indian Kashmir barrier which runs along the Line of Control in Kashmir. The purpose of this barrier is to prevent infiltration by armed militants. Many Kashmiris both in Jammu and Kashmir of India and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir in Pakistan are against the separation barrier since Kashmir is a disputed territory.

Iran

The Iran-Pakistan barrier wall is 700 kilometer long, which Iran claims is to stop the flow of illegal border crossings, stem the flow of drugs and prevent terror attacks from Pakistan. However, the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan, whose lands straddle the border region strongly opposes the construction of the wall and maintains that the wall would create problems for the Baloch people by dividing their community politically and socially, with their trade and social activities being seriously impeded. Leader of the Opposition, Kachkol Ali, said the governments of the two countries had not taken the Baloch into their confidence on this matter and demanded that the construction of the wall be stopped immediately and he also appealed to the international community to help the Baloch people. Residents of the Sorap locality in the Mand area of western Mekran region in Balochistan province rely on edible goods from Iran for their livelihood but Iranian border security forces vacate the town . The Balochistanis, who live on both sides of the border and in the area where both countries neighbour Afghanistan, have had their communities divided by the wall.

Iraq

On 10 April 2007, the U.S. military began constructing a 3.6 metre (12 ft) high concrete wall of 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) around the predominantly Sunni district of Adhamiya in Baghdad.

Writer Damon DiMarco described as a "separation barrier" the Kuwait-Iraq barrier constructed by the United Nations in 1991 after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. It is made of electrified fencing and concertina wire, and includes a 15 foot deep and wide trench and a high earthen berm. It runs 120 miles along the border between the two nations.

Israel

The separation barrier around Jerusalem, as of 2009. Dark red line existing; pink to be built.

Due to Israel's specific situation of being at war and conflict with much of its Middle Eastern environment, separation barriers and walls have been and remain an issue of major military (and often also political) concern:

• Jerusalem: During the 1950s and 1960s a fortified separation barrier also divided much of Jerusalem to separate Jordanian and Israeli-controlled sectors of the city. It was pulled down in the immediate aftermath of the 1967 Six Day War, when the eastern part of the city came under Israeli rule. Currently, the route of the separation barrier in Jerusalem cuts off residents of the Jerusalem municipality from Jerusalem proper.
• Lebanon and Syria: Israel's borders with Lebanon and Syria have sophisticated security barriers, including electronic surveillance and warning systems. The barrier along the Lebanese border follows the lines of the 1949 Armistice and was laid down in coordination with the UN, the government anxious to make clear that it had withdrawn completely from Lebanese territory (excepting the ongoing dispute on the Shaba Farms).
  • The barrier on the Syrian border on the Golan Heights reflects the situation in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War, when Israel retained the territory conquered in 1967 except for handing back the town of Kuneitra. The Syrian government has repeatedly demanded the return of the entire Golan, but has made no specific issue of Israel erecting a security barrier along the border as it presently stands.

Israel-Egypt separation barrier circa 2012

• The Israel and Egypt – Gaza Strip barrier includes the Rafah Border Crossing (Arabic: معبر رفح, Hebrew: מעבר רפיח), an international border crossing between Egyptian and Palestinian-controlled Rafah. It was built by the Israeli and Egyptian governments after the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty and 1982 Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula, and was managed by the Israel Airports Authority until it was evacuated on 11 September 2005 as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan. It has since become the mission of the European Union Border Assistance Mission Rafah (EUBAM) to monitor the crossing.
• Jordan: The border of Israel's territory with Jordan, mostly in the Negev Desert along the Arabah, is considered the most peaceful of the country's borders, due to traditional good relations with Jordan's Hashemite Dynasty. In March 2004, Israel and Jordan commenced a joint project to build a desert science centre on their shared border. They have taken down a stretch of the border fence between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea for the campus.
  • As well as the in the Negev, Israel also controls the West Bank's border with Jordan in the Jordan Valley. Along this border there is a security barrier with a two-way aim, designed to stop both infiltration from Jordan into the Israeli-controlled territory and the passage of West Bank Palestinians, uncontrolled by Israeli officials, into Jordan.

Map of existing or planned separation barrier between West Bank and Israel, as of 2005

• Occupied Territories: Israel's most critical and volatile relations are with its direct neighbors, the Palestinians, which are reflected in maintaining separation barriers between Israel proper and the Occupied Territories, with the declared aim of and subsequent success in preventing infiltration by suicide bombers.
  • The Israeli Gaza Strip barrier involves a security barrier along Israel's 1949 Armistice lines. There is also the security barrier along the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt (see Philadelphi Route), erected when Israel was in direct military control of the area. Though Israeli forces were withdrawn in 2005, the Government of Israel retains a declared interest in the area, especially due to alleged large-scale smuggling of arms from Sinai into the Strip, and insists upon the Egyptians and Palestinians maintaining intact the barrier between their respective territories – such insistence backed by sometimes open threats to otherwise resume direct Israeli military control. This has been cited by Palestinians and others who assert that the Gaza Strip remains an Occupied Territory despite the Israeli Disengagement from Gaza in 2005.
  • The Israeli West Bank barrier is being built as a fence with wide margins and sophisticated electronic surveillance in rural areas, and an eight-meter-high wall in urban areas. Of all Israel's separation barriers, it is the most controversial – between Israelis and Palestinians, internationally, and also inside the Israeli society itself. The controversy stems mainly from the government's decision not to follow Israel's 1949 Armistice lines (Green Line) but rather build the barrier within the West Bank - in some stretches, deeply within. Opponents of the project (who usually call it "The Wall" rather than "Barrier" or "Fence") say that this proves its purpose is not to stop suicide bombers – which would be equally served by a fence along the Green Line – but by the intention, effectively, to annexe parts of the West Bank, especially those where Israeli settlements have been established, as well as water sources – and to define the future borders with Palestine unilaterally and ahead of negotiations. This position was supported by the International Court of Justice at The Hague, which ruled that Israel had the right to fortify its own border but that building a barrier inside an Occupied Territory constituted a violation of International Law; the government of Israel, however, disputes this interpretation and refuses to abide by this ruling. For its part, the Israeli Supreme Court held that building inside the West Bank is in itself legal, but it but ordered some changes to the route of the barrier where the judges considered the original route to cause severe damage to Palestinian daily life – especially in separating Palestinian villagers from their land. Some radical Israeli groups, such as Anarchists Against the Wall, actively participate in protests against the barrier together with the villagers. As of late 2007, the barrier – originally slated to be completed by the end of 2005 – is far from complete, and further construction was stopped, officially for lack of funds.

Pakistan

In September 2005, Pakistan stated it has plans to build a 1,500-mile (2,400 km) fence along its border with Afghanistan to prevent Islamic insurgents and drug smugglers slipping between the two countries. Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has subsequently offered to mine the border as well.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has begun construction of a Saudi-Yemen barrier between its territory and Yemen to prevent the unauthorized movement of people and goods into and out of the Kingdom. Anthony H. Cordesman has called it a "separation barrier."

In 2006 Saudi Arabia proposed plans for the construction of a security fence along the entire length of its desert border of 900 kilometres (560 mi) with Iraq in a multi-million dollar project to secure the Kingdom's borders in order to improve internal security, control illegal immigration and bolster its defences against external threats.

• Saudi-Iraq barrier

Security fence along the South Africa-Mozambique border.

As of July 2009 it was reported that Saudis will pay $3.5 billion for security fence.

United States

Beach in Tijuana at the American-Mexican border, before security upgrades were installed.

The United States has constructed a barrier along 130 kilometres (81 mi) of its border with Mexico of 3,169 kilometres (1,969 mi) to prevent unauthorized immigration into the United States and to deter smuggling of contraband. The Georgetown Journal of Law has referred to it as a "separation barrier" and suggests that while it is "revolting to many as an ugly face of separation" it could be used as an opportunity if part of a larger program of "foreign aid, infrastructure investment and regional development."

See also

• Defensive walls
• List of fortifications
• List of walls
• List of cities with defensive walls
• Buffer zone
• Israel and Egypt–Gaza Strip barrier
• Israeli West Bank barrier
• Israel–Egypt barrier

External links

• Security Fences around the World
• Security Fences in The Atlantic Monthly
• Article about CityWalls on Erasmuspc
• "Obama's Border Fence", NOW on PBS, July 3, 2009.
• "Around Globe, Walls Spring Up to Divide Neighbors" Page Not Found, Reuters, April 30, 2007.
• Border to Border, Wall to Wall, Fence to Fence