Knesset nixes bill forcing completion of West Bank security barrier

The Knesset on Wednesday voted down a bill that would have forced the government to finish the West Bank security barrier within 18 months of the legislation’s passage into law.

“What happens if we cannot stop the next terrorist?” Zionist Union Chairman Avi Gabbay told asked prior to the preliminary vote on the bill, which was opposed by 42 parliamentarians and supported by only 23.

MK Omar Bar Lev (Zionist Union), who authored the legislation, told the plenum that politics had trumped security when it comes to finishing the barrier.

His party estimates that 16 years after work first began on the structure designed to halt suicide bombings, only 60% of the barrier’s 790-kilometer route has been completed. It’s a number that is also backed up by the United Nations.

“Let me remind you that one-third of the terror attacks within the state of Israel have been carried out by terrorists who infiltrated through the gap (in the barrier) in Gush Etzion,” Bar Lev said.

Among the attacks that could have been prevented had the barrier been completed was the kidnapping and killing of three teenagers from a Gush Etzion bus stop in 2014, 16-year-old Naftali Frenkel,and Gilad Shaar, and Eytal Yifrach, who was 19.

“The time has come for Likud and Bayit Yehudi members to look the citizens of Israel in the eye and to tell them the truth: Our considerations are political and the hell with Israel’s security,” Bar Lev said.

“You are afraid of your base, the settlers in Judea and Samaria who oppose this,” Bar Lev said.

He explained that the right-wing feared the barrier route, which encircles the blocs and excludes isolated settlements, could be the basis for a final status agreement with the Palestinians for a two-state solution.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to finish the barrier three years ago, Bar Lev said.

“So now I am asking the Prime Minister: Why don’t you do the things you yourself say you will?

The contentious project, that began in 2002, angered Palestinians, the international community and left-wing Israelis who accused the government of using security as an excuse to grab land in Area C.

Settler and right-wing Israeli politicians worried it created a potential border for a two-state solution that abandoned many settlements located outside its planned route, which have since been dubbed isolated communities.

The project has essentially been frozen for the last ten years. The Defense Ministry prioritized other projects and the United States opposed construction of the barrier in the West Bank.

Palestinian appeals to the High Court of Justice also slowed the project down.

According to the UN, only 465 kilometers of the barrier had been completed as of December 2017.

The uncompleted stretches include the areas around the Ma’aleh Adumim and Ariel settlements, as well as in the Gush Etzion Region. The South Hebron Hills region is also problematic.

Separately, infrastructure to help provide security along sections of the constructed barrier was not maintained.

In the last few years the Zionist Union has come out in support of the barrier, as part of its stance the settlements must remain part of Israel in any final status agreement. 

The explanatory text that accompanied Bar-Lev’s legislation noted that between 2002 to 2006, four government decision were passed with regard to the barrier’s construction.

“All of them recognized the real and urgent necessity of creating a continuous and effective barrier,” the legislation said.

“The purpose of this bill is to obligate the Government of Israel and the Ministry of Defense to complete the construction of the fence in an urgent and immediate manner,” the text said.

Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan (Bayit Yehudi) called on the Knesset to oppose the legislation because the government had a right to set its own priorities when it came to security without interference from the parliament.