John Yowan
Mr. Bruner
Government Hour 2
10 October 2003
On October First Israel's government approved construction of new barriers inside the West Bank to protect several large Jewish settlements. I think President Bush’s stance should be against the building of the wall or he should suggest putting gaps in the wall if Israel goes ahead with the process of constructing the wall as a barrier. I think this because it would be a failure of the peace process, Israel is taking Palestinian land, and tens of thousands of Palestinians will be cut off from the West Bank.
Building a barrier
does not help peace in my opinion. I think it would just make Palestinians hate Israel even more because
they would not be able to travel from Israel to the West Bank as easily. Some
of the Palestinians have jobs in Israel and if the barrier were built they
would not be able to go to their jobs. Additionally, if the barrier is built
the Palestinians and the Israelis would probably become more suspicious of each
other and since people fear the unknown they would not like each other even
more than before. If gaps were put in the wall the Palestinians who have
jobs in Israel could still have the same job.
If the barrier were built
around the Jewish cities in the West Bank the Israelis would be taking
Palestinian land. In my opinion taking land is not the right thing to do.
Instead I think the Israelis should leave the West Bank and the Palestinians
should leave Israel. Then the wall protecting the Jewish people in the West
Bank would not be needed and the Israelis would not be taking Palestinian land.
Building the barrier would cut off tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank. Some Palestinian farmers land would be separated and they would then lose the ability to utilize these areas. The farmers would make less money each year because they would have less land for planting their crops and for their animals to live. But if gaps were put in the wall the Palestinian farmers could still keep their land and go from one side of the barrier to the other.
In conclusion I think President Bush should put pressure on Israel’s Government to not allow the building of the wall. If Israel proceeds with building the wall, President Bush should suggest putting gaps in it. It would be a failure of the peace process in building the barrier because Israel would be cutting off access of the Palestinian’s to their land and the West Bank.