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I happened across an article titled Jerusalem: whose very own and golden city? (which seems to be a plagiarized copy of the same article by Philippe Rekacewicz and Dominique Vidal in Le Monde diplomatique). Although the agenda of the article is clear, I would like to examine a small section of it, drawing on my own personal observations to correct some incorrect statements. I believe that this example is representative of a lot of misinformation that is often quoted regarding Israel.
What follows is the second paragraph of the article, broken up with my commentary:
For Palestinians from the West Bank, access to the city is another matter. If they get through the internal checkpoints, they encounter the most brutal obstacle ever invented to control and restrict movement in the occupied territories: a 10m high wall that will soon completely surround the eastern part of the city, blotting out the landscape and blocking the traditional access roads.
The one thing true here is that in some parts of the areas surrounding Jerusalem there is 10m high concrete wall. However, most of the "wall" is really a series of three fences - one fence, security road, fence with more barbed wire and with electronic monitoring, sand, and another fence. This is the predominant form of the "wall". It is no more than 2-3 meters high, and in no way "blots out the landscape". In more urban areas, a single concrete block (up to 10m tall and not so nice to look at) is used, since it takes up more space (and since it works much better at protecting Jewish homes from gunfire and rocks than a fence does). I know this because I live within 2 miles of the fence and have large sections of it, up close and from both sides, in multiple locations.
It cuts straight across historic highways from Jerusalem to Amman (Route 417) and from Jenin to Hebron (Route 60). For West Bank Palestinians, the monstrous concrete serpent is broken only at four points: Qalandiya in the north, Shuafat in the northeast, Ras Abu Sbeitan in the west and Gilo in the south.
I know of at least one more checkpoint that is open to Palestinians: the Hizmeh checkpoint by Pisgat Ze'ev. I know this because this morning I drove through the Hizmeh checkpoint, along with Palestinian cars with green license plates.
To reach these they have to make many detours, leave their cars and cross on foot. Palestinian vehicles, with green licence plates, are strictly forbidden in Jerusalem.
This is simply not true. I drive from the "other side" of the fence into Jerusalem at least 2-3 times a week. More often than not I am driving alongside Palestinian vehicles with green license plates. And once I get into Jerusalem, driving down Route 60 towards the Old City, it is not an uncommon site to see Palestinian cars with green license plates.
You may argue that these details are inconsequential and that they do not change any of the basic facts of the situation. I say in return that every single one of these false statements are used in conjunction to paint a picture of Israel as an evil occupier bent on murder and destruction. Just a small number of these statements that do not happen to coincide with the truth, along with a manner of research that chooses to completely ignore many basic facts in a situation in order to pain a picture in line with a certain agenda *** can make a multi-faceted, complicated situation seem to be very clear cut. Unfortunately, this type of dishonest journalism that is employed by much of the MSM in Europe and the West does nothing more than create a large population of misinformed readers, and does nothing to help promote anything positive in terms of progress towards a peaceful resolution of this region's problems.
(*** As this article does - the authors spend many paragraphs talking about the evil ambitions of the Zionists who seek to have continuity of settlement without bothering to mention one of the main driving forces behind this ambition: protection and security against the countries that have continuously sought Israel's destruction over the past century; the authors also talk about how it is so wrong of the Israelis to make the commutes of Palestinian workers longer without mentioning the fact that the checkpoints are there in order to stop suicide bombers and terrorist attacks against Israelis.)
