By Ryan Jones
Nov 17, 2005
The security fence Israel is building in Judea and Samaria is not so much a means of fighting terrorism as it is a belated effort to impose the 1948 United Nations Partition Plan on the region, Jewish residents of Israel's biblical heartland say.
?If the ?settlement blocs? that [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon speaks about are really to exist and if there really is a consensus regarding Gush Etzion, Israel must assert sovereignty and annex the region into the State of Israel right now,? Kfar Etzion resident Shimon Karniel told Arutz 7.
Karniel was reacting to the start of construction on the fence in areas south of Jerusalem, and a dispute between the government and Jewish locals on the path of the barrier.
Residents of Gush Etzion (the Etzion Bloc of Jewish towns in central Judea) complain the fence is leaving several of their more isolated communities outside its protection, and that its close proximity to the main cluster of communities will stifle their future growth and development.
However, Karniel cautioned that the real issue is not the fence itself, but Jewish sovereignty in the area.
He fears a barrier tightly hugging existing communities in Judea will create an enclave without a future, that will one day soon face the same fate as Gaza's Katif Bloc.
As such, Karniel and others like him have labeled the security fence as ?The Partition Wall,? since its ultimate purpose is to divide the Land of Israel in the same way the UN tried to more than a half century ago.
Judea contains some of the Jewish people's most important historical sites, from Jerusalem to Hebron to King David's hometown of Bethlehem.
The heart of the ancient Israeli kingdom sat on what is today referred to as the ?occupied Palestinian territories? of Judea and Samaria.