Tariq A. Al-Maeena

The US media has done it again. In a crafty move to immunize the moral outrage of most good Americans, the media has taken to portraying the intrusive wall being built by Ariel Sharon’s government into occupied territories as nothing more than a “fence”.

Now to most people, the word “fence” might bring to mind a white picket fence in some serene neighborhood in suburbia. Or possibly a chain link fence on some tract home, separating one’s property you’re your next-door neighbor, Mr. Jones. Very harmless, and nothing foreboding in it.

In some of the print media, the word “barrier” is also used. Even the word “barrier” is an understatement for the monstrosity that is currently under construction, for barrier conjures only a mild degree of separation.

But make no mistake about it. What is currently being illegally built through Palestinian land is a wall, with a capital W. A concrete wall, one meter or more thick in most areas and over 10 meters high. Every 10 meters or so stand watch-towers manned with machine guns, sharp-shooters and rocket launchers, designed not to protect but to intrude and kill.

It is a wall designed to usurp and confiscate land from their rightful owners, by splitting towns and villages and people. This is a wall, built deep in Palestinian territory, which is another means of oppression and occupation, and has nothing to do with security.

This Wall is a hideous long gash of metal and concrete, cutting through a countryside where fields and olive groves bearing the signs of long and painstaking care of an arid soil used to be, atrociously designed to lead to the utter demolition of the land and its people.

In defiance of the world court, Sharon’s government is hurrying up this walled prison to house all of the Palestinians that won’t leave their land. They are being asked to forego their right for the sake of someone else’s greed. They have suffered unspeakable brutality and the crushing pain of death. Even children are not being spared.

Once the Palestinians are all trapped inside, they can be systematically massacred in the interest of Israel’s security. And those who dare object will be loudly targeted as anti-Semitic.

It is no wonder that few Americans if any have been shown pictures or video clips of what this wall looks like. But no attempt to disguise its sinister purposes by non-threatening words will make the region any safer.

There was a time when America had the morality not to participate in the wholesale murder or slaughter of innocent civilians, but sadly today, the present administration seems to encourage the twisting of the truth and perverting of the road map to peace.

- (close_encounters@gawab.com)