Wall reminds of SA - Gandhi
2004-08-27 21:00
Abu Dis, West Bank - A grandson of the legendary Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi said on Friday that Israel's West Bank barrier reminded him of South African apartheid, the latest international figure to slam Israel's attempt to separate itself from the Palestinians.
Speaking in front of the 8-metre-high concrete slabs that make up a part of the barrier, Arun Gandhi told hundreds of demonstrating Palestinians that the international community has to help find a resolution to the decades-old conflict.
Gandhi, who began a weeklong visit on Tuesday of the West Bank and Israel, has urged Palestinians to adopt his grandfather's form of nonviolent resistance to solve the conflict.
"It is about time now that the world get involved for finding a solution to this problem," said Gandhi, a scarf draped around his neck designed with a traditional black-and-white Palestinian headscarf and the red, green and black Palestinian flag.
Reminds of SA
"This wall reminds me of ... South Africa," Gandhi added, gesturing behind him at the gray slabs of concrete that have cut Abu Dis residents off from Jerusalem.
Israel says it is building the barrier of concrete walls, razor wire and trenches to prevent militants from attacking its towns on cities. In some areas the contentious structure is planned to dip deep into the West Bank, infuriating Palestinians who condemn it as a land grab meant to prevent them from establishing a viable state.
Just one-quarter of the 680km barrier is built, but it already severely disrupts Palestinian lives, cutting people off from their lands, schools, workplaces and nearby towns and villages.
Many Israelis credit the barrier for a significant reduction in the frequency of suicide attacks that have killed hundreds of people inside Israel during four years of conflict.
Arabic music blared from loudspeakers and hundreds chanted as Gandhi marched with Ahmed Qureia to the concrete slabs that stand near the Palestinian prime minister's home in Abu Dis, a city that largely depends on Jerusalem for work, shops and a social life.
'Holy Land needs bridges'
"This Holy Land is in need of bridges of peace, bridges of loving, bridges of coexistence, and is not in need of walls of hatred, a wall of aggression, like this wall," Qureia told the crowd.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands handed down a nonbinding advisory opinion in July that the barrier is illegal and Israel should tear it down. The Israeli Supreme Court recently ordered the government to reroute portions of the structure that it said violates Palestinian rights and international law.
Gandhi, who spent his childhood in South Africa, was 12 years old when he went to live with his grandfather in India. In 1991, he and his wife founded the MK Gandhi Institute for Non-Violence at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1995 he became a US citizen.
A struggle of passive resistance, led by Mohandas Gandhi - better known as Mahatma or "great soul" - brought down British colonial rule in India. Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic in New Delhi in 1948, soon after his country's independence.
- AP