A Decade In The Making, West Bank Barrier Is Nearly Complete
Israeli army Capt. Barak Raz climbs a metal staircase to the top of a high concrete wall that is part of Israel's West Bank barrier. From his perch, he overlooks both the Palestinian village of Bil'in and Modin Illit, the largest Jewish settlement in the West Bank, with some 50,000 residents.
The barrier here used to be a fence. After many confrontations with Israeli soldiers, Palestinian villagers won a court case, and the fence was moved off some of their land. But since the barrier was moved closer to an Israeli settlement, it was rebuilt as a wall.
"We can certainly see the security fence has huge benefits. Controversial as it may be, no on can argue with the statistics that it simply brought an end to that free flow of terrorism," says Raz.
Israel's barrier has been a source of international criticism, United Nations resolutions and legal cases at the International Court of Justice. It has sparked countless confrontations between Palestinians and the Israeli security forces.
In this area, Bil'in was featured in the Oscar-nominated documentary Five Broken Cameras, which looked at the barrier through Palestinian eyes.
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