By Arab Media Watch chairman Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi and adviser Guy Gabriel

14 January 2008

Unfortunately, one can still occasionally come across claims in the British media that Israel's Barrier is being built "along the boundary with the West Bank," even though this argument has long been thoroughly debunked. One such example, in The Times on 11 January 2008, is available at:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3168462.ece

The indisputable fact is that the vast majority of the Barrier lies inside the occupied Palestinian territory, not along its boundary.

A November 2007 report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, entitled "The Barrier Gate and Permit Regime Four Years on: Humanitarian Impact in the Northern West Bank," describes the Barrier as "deviating significantly into the West Bank."

The report added: "In July 2004, the International Court of Justice declared that the Barrier, where it encroaches into the West Bank, including East Jerusalem - some 90 percent of the route - is illegal."

http://domino.un.org/pdfs/BarrierWB.pdf

A July 2008 report by OCHA, entitled "The Humanitarian Impact of the Barrier Four Years After the Advisory Opinion of the International Court on the Barrier" states that approximately 87% runs inside the West Bank and East Jerusalem, rather than along the Green Line.

The report continued that when complete, the barrier will isolate approximately 9.8% of West Bank territory, including East Jerusalem and No-Man's Land. The full report can be viewed here:

http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ICJ4_Special_Focus_July2007.pdf

"The West Bank Barrier's total length is 780 km, more than twice the length of the 1949 Armistice Line (Green Line)," said a September 2007 OCHA report, complete with a detailed map of the Barrier's route (shown below). "12.5% of the West Bank now lies between the Green Line and the Barrier."

As such, there is simply no excuse for anyone in the media to perpetuate the falsehood about the Barrier's route. Were it to run along the West Bank boundary, it would not be so roundly condemned by the Palestinians, the international community, and the ICJ.