Israel To Build NIS 1.5 Billion Fence Along Border With Egypt

Haaretz:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday ordered the construction of a fence at a cost of $1.5 billion along two segments of Israel's border with Egypt, in an attempt to stem the infiltration of migrant workers as well as of terrorist elements into Israel.

Read the whole story: Haaretz

Comments

[Ergon]

10:24 PM on 01/11/2010

Here's the figures, as requested, on American Foreign Aid to Israel: http://opencrs.com/document/RL33222/
from "If Americans knew" http://www.ifamericansknew.org/

[Oleg1]

01:12 PM on 01/11/2010

Actually this fence will be more in line with American/Mexican border: To stop many thousands of illegal immigrants escaping from Islamic paradises in Africa.

[Higgs Boson]

05:18 AM on 01/12/2010

I am positive that is what this fence is for . By the way , I have some beach front property for sale.

[Aziat]

03:51 PM on 01/12/2010

What is the fence for? To keep the Palestinians that live in Egypt out of Israel? Oh wait...

[high water]

12:57 PM on 01/11/2010

I'm curious, wouldn't an easy solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue be for voting age Palestinians to just overwhelm the Jewish political system? Palestinians could register, nominate, and vote their own politicians right into the Knesset -- then Israelis will HAVE to deal more equitably with them. Right?

[courtb]

01:02 PM on 01/11/2010

Arab Israelis only make up 20% of the population of Israel. Even if every single one of them voted, they wouldn't overwhelm the Knesset. But they do have their own political parties and politicians in the Knesset already. I just wish Jewish Israeli politicians had the cojones to bring the Arab groups into a coalition based on peace.

[bermanator]

01:03 PM on 01/11/2010

The Palestinians in question don't live in Israel and aren't Israeli citizens.

[GenosseJoe]

06:56 AM on 01/11/2010

Only exchange of Jewish and Arab population between all Jewish countries and all Arab countries would solve the problem.

[diggg]

07:46 AM on 01/11/2010

Fanned!

[lightningbolt]

10:50 AM on 01/11/2010

Jews have already been expelled from Arab nations in the 1940's and 50's. Israel, on the other hand, has no problems with Arabs. Arabs in Israel make up about 20% of the population and they are treated as equals.

[alysheba 3]

02:46 PM on 01/11/2010

Wrong.

Arabs are second class citizens in Israel.

A bill presently under debate would legalize “community acceptance committees” which the Israeli Supreme Court has ruled illegal. Many towns established these committees to prevent residency to newcomers if they didn’t match the community’s lifestyle. This essentially allows wealthy towns to turn away poor applicants, Orthodox from secular, Ethiopian from Mizrahi, and Arab from Jewish. This bill seeks to allow wholesale discrimination along any criterion. Said bill sponsor David Rotem of Yisrael Beiteinu, “When I want to establish a Jewish town, I am not ashamed of it.”
http://jewschool.com/2009/12/23/19591/the-state-of-israeli-civil-rights-2009/

Some 35,000 Bedouin residents of Israel’s southern Negev have been denied the right to hold their first local council election after the Israeli parliament passed a law at the last minute to cancel this month’s ballot.
http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/12496-israels-bedouin-denied-right-to-elections-law-allows-jewish-officials-to-rule-local-council-indefinitely.html

Part 2 to follow.

[alysheba 3]

02:47 PM on 01/11/2010

Part 2

The Basic Law: Human Dignity & Freedom, which is considered a mini-bill of rights by Israeli legal scholars, does not enumerate the right for equality. On the contrary, this Basic Law emphasizes the ethnicity of the State as a Jewish State. Therefore, the Arab minority is afforded no constitutional protection against discrimination.

Equality Cases Before the Supreme Court of Israel: The Supreme Court has delivered several forward-thinking decisions in anti-discrimination cases involving the rights of women, homosexuals, the disabled and other groups, however, the Supreme Court, since 1948, has dismissed all cases which deal with equal rights for Arab citizens of the State.

This Report shows that the Supreme Court, in cases involving equal rights for Arab citizens, uniformly considers the differences between Jews and Arabs to be relevant factors in justifying privileges granted only to Israeli Jews. As a result, the Court consistently rules that discriminatory State policies are not invalid and discriminatory because they further legitimate distinctions. The Supreme Court, therefore, has failed to protect the equal rights of the Arab minority in Israel.
(This report was done in 1998, however there is no evidence that there have been any changes.)
http://www.adalah.org/heb/publications/violations.htm

[Horst]

06:03 AM on 01/11/2010

I was surprised when I visited Egypt, Israel and Jordan to find that these borders are essentially demilitarized. I saw one jeep during a three hour drive along the West Bank Jordanian border. The US/Mexico border is very different.

[diggg]

07:52 AM on 01/11/2010

You're not allowed to say that- It contradicts the image of the oppressed Palestinian.

[alysheba 3]

01:23 PM on 01/11/2010

How? I see no mention of Palestinian borders. And everyone knows the US is paying Egypt and Jordan to be Israel's friends.

[Higgs Boson]

05:12 AM on 01/12/2010

Yes , the Jordanians are not oppressing the Palestinians

[juicyju]

06:13 PM on 01/13/2010

Oh no, not the truth! :)

[rougebaisers]

05:58 AM on 01/11/2010

Better to start figuring out what you are going to do when ocean levels rise Oh Israel. That is a lot of beach front property you have that is going to be under water in the not too distant future. Keep building walls around yourself and eventually your nation will be a very wet addition to the ocean.

[lightningbolt]

10:51 AM on 01/11/2010

They could also build a wall to keep the sea out. Why not?

[Sirdi]

12:48 PM on 01/11/2010

... God willing.

[duxguts]

05:38 AM on 01/11/2010

News Flash! US to pay for Israeli fence along Egyptian border.

[Wisdo]

05:38 AM on 01/11/2010

"This is a strategic decision to secure Israel's Jewish and democratic character," Netanyahu said in a statement.

Okay class, anyone see the glaring error in PM Netanyahu's statement?

What if we subsitiute Christian, say for Jewish? would that be acceptable also?

How would you feel being one of Israel's many muslim citizens on hearing your own elected leader say this?

[stpmdn]

10:31 AM on 01/11/2010

since I wouldn't be able to vote if I was a muslim in Israel it wouldn't matter

[courtb]

01:50 PM on 01/11/2010

You should tell that to the Muslim MKs...apparently, they weren't elected by Muslim Israelis...

[lightningbolt]

03:20 PM on 01/11/2010

Muslims, Christians and anyone else who is an Israeli citizen can vote. Go back to school and learn some history and geography.

[lightningbolt]

10:55 AM on 01/11/2010

Despite Netanyahu's statement, Muslims in Israel get treated way better than Muslims in most Muslim countries. Most Muslim countries (except for Turkey) are tyrannical dictatorships and monarchies who oppress their entire populations no matter what their religion is.

[phute]

11:54 AM on 01/11/2010

Just a little bit of an exageration the lightning - the word entire.

[harmlesstree]

12:11 PM on 01/11/2010

So you think Muslims in Israel get treated better than say Muslims in Indonesia, which is the largest Muslim country? Arabs within Israel, both Muslims and Christians ( forgetting the Palestinians for the moment) are treated as second class citizens. In fact, this second class status is enshrined within the very fabric of the state of Israel. For it is a Jewish State - not a state of its people, regardless of their ethnicity or religion.

[KIVPossum]

03:50 AM on 01/11/2010

Is there any advertising in it for us? Can we get a sign, 'this fence sponsored by the US government', put on the fence?

[GenosseJoe]

06:57 AM on 01/11/2010

That would be a false advertising.

[Wisdo]

10:03 AM on 01/11/2010

This Berlin wall was paid for and endorsed by American Citizens. Please dont hate us for our freedoms, or your lack of them.

[Higgs Boson]

12:57 AM on 01/11/2010

I wonder if the Israeli's will sentence children to prison for throwing rocks at this wall as they do in the west bank ?

[diggg]

02:43 AM on 01/11/2010

Right- because the Egyptian police would allow the rock throwing unlike the PA police, or because Israeli courts would have jurisdiction in Egypt? Nice try at point making though.

[Higgs Boson]

03:49 AM on 01/11/2010

The Palestinian police have been blown up by the Israeli's .

[stardust835]

12:56 AM on 01/11/2010

I'm looking forward to the tour being planned of anti-apartheid South African and Palestinian trade unionists. It will really help people put this into historical perspective.

[Kap Hop]

10:44 PM on 01/10/2010

Won't these walls - whether in the U.S. or Israel or elsewhere - affect the migration patterns of wildlife living in that eco-system?

[bermanator]

11:16 PM on 01/10/2010

If you consider terrorists to be "wildlife", why yes, yes it will.

[diggg]

02:44 AM on 01/11/2010

Faved

[Wisdo]

10:04 AM on 01/11/2010

Something tells me you dont see any difference between "terrorists" "mulsims" and "wildlife".

How is life in the white supremacy movement these days?

[skialethia]

11:27 PM on 01/10/2010

Like Israelis care. Sewage from the settlements is polluting Palestinians farmland...you think they're doing anything about it? You think they care that water resources are scare on the Palestinian side because the settlements are stealing water from the Palestinians to fill swimming pools and water lawns on the West Bank?

You think they care that they b0mbed out the sewer system in Gaza and now they don't allow reconstruction materials in so the Gazans can fix this urgent and imminently dangerous problem?

They could care less!

[Higgs Boson]

12:47 AM on 01/11/2010

Thank you skia . fanned for the truth

[diggg]

02:39 AM on 01/11/2010

Maybe they should use the building materials used to build tunnels for their own sewer systems. Sounds like priorities are in the wrong place to me.

[Bernique]

09:53 PM on 01/10/2010

I thought I heard on the news today that this country was going to impose sanctions, "SANCTIONS!" on Izrael for its non-compliance with international treaties, and its illegal West Bank expansions. Not to mention the slow, native American-style, ge-no-ci-de on Gaza.

I applaud this move very much. I'll be watching.

[Higgs Boson]

10:26 PM on 01/10/2010

Its about time

[skialethia]

10:32 PM on 01/10/2010

Is it April 1st already? What is this some kind of joke? Please don't joke about a thing like this...too many people are praying for just that to happen.

[Freenation]

11:18 PM on 01/10/2010

it is not, as usual US MSM skipped this...:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8450715.stm

[alysheba 3]

01:41 PM on 01/11/2010

Not really sanction. Mitchell suggested witholding loan guarantees. Of course, how much does that work when you've just increased aid to and just re-armed Israel at no cost to Israel?

The U.S. Army will double the value of emergency military equipment it stockpiles on Israeli soil, and Israel will be allowed to use the U.S. ordnance in the event of a military emergency, according to a report in Monday's issue of the U.S. weekly Defense News.
(http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1141745.html)

[skialethia]

09:52 PM on 01/10/2010

The ever-expanding Israeli open-air prison system, paid for and enabled by U.S. taxpayers to the tune of $3 billion per year!!

[rosiebond007]

11:35 PM on 01/10/2010

AND they don't really NEED the money anyway !!

Stealing from us - the taxpayer !!

[Mortifyd]

03:19 AM on 01/11/2010

They aren't stealing anything - our government gives aid to a lot of countries.

[hemara]

04:37 AM on 01/11/2010

The grabbing hands / grab all they can / all for themselves / after all.

[lightningbolt]

11:04 AM on 01/11/2010

This wall is between Egypt and Israel. Nobody is being imprisoned by it.

[capitalismisevil]

09:27 PM on 01/10/2010

I thought the palestinians were living in Jordan at one time. Anyone want to tell the group why the palestinians are no longer welcome there?

[AtheistUS]

09:37 PM on 01/10/2010

Many countries like to keep ME conflict going on...

[juicyju]

09:53 PM on 01/10/2010

and Egypt too.