Do good fences make good neighbours?
In a well-known 1914 poem entitled ‘Mending Wall’ by American poet Robert Frost he has one man questioning the need to keep mending the stone wall between his property and his neighbour’s land each year. And the neighbour replies, “Good fences make for good neighbours”. This poem, recycling a 17th century English proverb, is widely quoted and referred to in American society, but is it really true? Do good fences make for good neighbours?
The world press recently reported that the Israeli government intended to build a low-tech, non-electrified fence along the entire length of its border with Egypt, starting from the Red Sea across the Sinai Desert, and all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. The project will cost $500 million dollars. What do they hope to achieve?
Their intention is to keep out the drug dealers, weapon smugglers and human traffickers who have operated freely across that border for so long. It is estimated that up to 200 people per week come across the border undetected. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was quoted as saying that Israel is the only country in the world where people can arrive on foot from Third World countries including Africa. Israel has no choice, he says, but to close itself off on all sides. If not, Israel will be eventually be flooded with unwanted thousands of foreign workers, illegal residents and a burgeoning criminal element. The move is also an attempt to guarantee the preservation of the Jewish character and democratic ideals of Israel, he explained.
Wire fences and concrete walls already seal off the borders between Israel and both Syria and Lebanon, as well as the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Only the border with Egypt remains easily breached.
The planned barrier will have two parallel barbed-wire fences that will detain people until border police arrive to handle the situation. Radar and a variety of other surveillance equipment will warn of all human movement and potential infiltration. There will also be additional border patrols that will be able to respond to all of the security violation reports received.
The Egyptian security agencies reported that the Israeli Government had not informed them of their plans but they have decided to put up a steel fence along the border with Gaza in order to prevent smuggling through the cross-border tunnels. Egyptian citizens say that fuel prices have already risen significantly and that without the tunnels, Gaza will suffer a serious shortage of fuel for heating during the winter. All of this happens in the context of Egypt stepping up its border control efforts in the past few months under pressure from the Israeli and USA governments. Egyptian police have reportedly killed at least 17 people in that time.
In response to the announcement of the Israeli fence the Palestinian Hamas leaders called for protests, which resulted in hundreds of young, male Gazans throwing stones at the security forces. A Palestinian sniper killed an Egyptian border guard, and dozens of Gazans were wounded. Human rights organisations have condemned Israel’s decision to build a fence, and point to the human suffering that it causes. They say that when desperate Africans living under harsh regimes manage to escape and make their way to Israel and Egypt, in hopes of a better life, they are thwarted. The first phase of the Israeli fence project is set to start soon.