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CNN Live Sunday

Israel Begins Construction of Fence to Separate West Bank

Aired June 16, 2002 - 18:11   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: And now to the Middle East. Israel's latest weapon against suicide bombers and other attacks is now a 75- mile long security fence, which workers started putting up today to separate Israel and the West Bank. CNN's Sheila MacVicar looks at the controversy the barrier is already causing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Israel's government says there is no choice. A fence, it says, physical separation is the only answer. And so construction began on what is intended to be a 110-kilometer, $220 million fence, designed to keep suicide bombers out of Israel.

Palestinians see the creation of ghettos. Some Israelis worry that it establishes a border and ends any Israeli claims to the settlements. The government says it's all about security.

BENIYAMIN BEN ELIEZER, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER: All what we have done and we have started today aim to bring the maximum security to the whole population of Israel.

MACVICAR (on camera): As much as Israel's government insists that the fence is meant only to provide security and not fixed borders, there will inevitably be political consequences, and nowhere is there more uncertainty about what those consequences might be than here in the village of Barta.

(voice-over): The Arab village was divided right down this trash-strewn riverbed back in 1949 when Israel's borders were negotiated. The border guards are long gone, since 1967, but this village remains technically divided. On the west is Israel and Israeli-Arabs, on the east, the Palestinian Authority and Palestinians.

HUSAI KABA (ph): It is the border between he two Bartas.

MACVICAR: And now the villagers like Husai Kaba, an elected counselor on the Israeli side, fear that once again there will be a new physical barrier.

KABA: We have many questions. We have no answers about that.

MACVICAR: The people of Barta, Israeli, Arab and Palestinian are all part of one extended family, the Kaba (ph) clan. Every part of life is intertwined here. Electricity from Israel, the mosque on the Israeli side, the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on the Palestinian, but it may get much closer.

The new fence they think will run to the east of the entire village, putting all of Barta on the Israeli side of the fence. Desam Kaba (ph) is an elected counselor on the Palestinian side.

"We don't know what will happen" he says. "Will we get special permits? Will we become Israelis? Will the government be Palestinian and security Israeli? We just don't know."

At Tabun (ph) Bakery on the Palestinian side, these Kaba cousins, like everyone else, are confused. They have Palestinian identity cards but they may end up with Israel coming to them.

"The fence is bad for both sides" he says, "wherever they put it, on one side or the other, it's bad."

But down the road the duck and egg seller is pragmatic. "I'd like to be Palestinian" he says "that's my nationality. From the economic point of view, it will be better to be part of Israel."

What Israel's government means only to address the serious matter of security is raising complicated questions about borders and nationalities and to whom the land belongs, difficult questions that no one is yet ready to answer.

Sheila MacVicar, CNN, Barta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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