Last week we wrote about the triple barbed wire fence along Israel’s border with Egypt. Now according to Col. Ann Wright, a retired US Army Reserve Colonel and a former U.S. diplomat, the USA has authorized (Dec 9th 2009) the Army Corps of Engineers to design a vertical underground wall under the border between Egypt and Gaza.
In March 2009 the United States provided the government of Egypt with $32 million for electronic surveillance and other security devices to prevent the movement of food, merchandise and weapons into Gaza. Now details are emerging about an underground steel wall that will be 6-7 miles long and extend 55 feet straight down into the desert sand.
The steel wall will be made of super-strength steel put together in a jigsaw puzzle fashion. It will be bomb proof and cannot be cut or melted. It will be “impenetrable,” and reportedly will take 18 months to construct.
The steel wall is intended to cut the tunnels that go between Gaza and Egypt. The tunnels have been the lifelines for Gaza since the international community agreed to a blockade to punish the citizens of Gaza for having elected Hamas as their government in the 2006 Parliamentary elections. The United States and other western countries have placed Hamas on the list of terrorist organizations.
The underground steel wall is intended to strengthen international governmental efforts to imprison and starve the people of Gaza into submission so they will throw out the Hamas government.
America’s super technology will again be laughed at by the world, as young men dedicated to the survival of their people will again outwit technology by simply digging deeper, and most likely penetrating the “impenetrable” in some novel, simple, low-tech way.
Following the 22-day Israeli military attack on Gaza that killed 1,440, wounded 5,000, left 50,000 homeless and destroyed much of the infrastructure of Gaza, the disproportionate use of force and targeting of the civilian population by the Israeli military is considered by international law and human rights experts as a violation of the Geneva conventions.
Just as American smart bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq have not conquered the spirit of Afghans and Iraqis, America’s underground walls in Gaza will never conquer the courage of those who are fighting for the survival of their families.
The American government and the Obama administration have been active participants in the continued inhumane treatment of the people of Gaza and should be held accountable, along with Israel and Egypt, for violations of human rights of the people of Gaza.
Rev the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC