'Berlin Wall' will fail - experts

2002-06-20 09:23

Adam Tanner

Berlin - In politics, walls don't work.

Veterans from both sides of the Berlin Wall say Israel's $220 million (about R2 200 million) plan to erect 110km of fence along the West Bank will fail ultimately, much as the Cold-War divide through Berlin eventually crumbled.

Rudi Thurow helped build the Berlin Wall in 1961 as a border guard. A year later, he circumvented the wall he was supposed to be guarding and crawled through a tunnel to the West.

"One cannot solve problems through a wall, only through negotiations," he said. "If Israel has a wall, then some will build tunnels and go through them."

"The wall didn't keep us out at all. The attackers against Israel will do exactly the same. They can stem some of the terror, but some terrorists will still break through and commit attacks."

After Tuesday's suicide bombing in Jerusalem that killed 19 Israelis, Israel said it would accelerate the construction of a protective fence aimed at keep out attackers.

A symbol of oppression

Some are already calling it Israel's Berlin Wall, although there are clear differences in the two situations.

"The concern of the Israelis is understandable, but I think it is unsuitable," said Wolfgang Seiffert, who as a young East German Communist knew Erich Honecker, the man who supervised the Wall's construction and later became the country's hardline dictator.

"In the end, it never helps, as we saw with East Germany," said Seiffert. "It could bring stability in the beginning as in East Germany, but it will achieve nothing in the end."

Soviet-backed East Germany erected the 155km Berlin Wall in 1961 to stem a growing flow of refugees from East to West Germany. The concrete structure - reinforced by guards, automatic weapons and other defences - came to symbolise the oppression of the East bloc.

The new Israeli fence has unified Palestinians and some Israeli rightwingers in their opposition. Many Palestinians - like East Germans who worked in West Berlin and lost their jobs more than 40 years ago - fear their lives could worsen by cutting off job opportunities on the other side of the barrier.

Some Israeli rightwingers say the fence could set a de facto border for a Palestinian state, weaken their claim to land captured in the 1967 Middle East war and cut Jewish settlements off from Israel.

Verner Pike experienced the original Berlin Wall as a United States soldier at the famous Checkpoint Charlie in August 1961 and during the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation of US and Soviet tanks there several months later.

"Walls don't work," he said. "We learned that in Berlin, a long time ago."

"The people in the east looked and said this would secure us and make us feel better. It didn't work for them. It's not going to work for the Israelis. It's sad that they are even discussing something like that."

- Reuters