PARC provides an alternative Wall/ Settlement Tour
to the Belgian socialist Trade Union
May 10, 2005

Members of the Belgian socialist trade union (ABVV) who were visiting the Israeli Trade Union (The Histadrut) were encouraged to visit the Palestinian territories to stand on the suffering of the Palestinian people under Israeli Occupation, mainly with the construction of the Wall and Israeli settlements.





The Palestinian Agriculture Relief Committees (PARC) provided the 15 members visiting Belgium delegation an alternative tour of the Wall and the Israeli settlements in Jerusalem.

The tour started at the Wall in Abu Dis- Izariyyeh towns (East Jerusalem) during which detailed explanation of the Palestinian hardships with the construction of the Wall were reported.





The PARC guides informed the ABVV members of the current situation in East Jerusalem with the construction of the Wall impacting the health, educational and even business sectors. The PARC guides described how the 70 000 Palestinians that live in the villages of Abu Dis, Bethany (Izariyyeh town) and East Sawahreh are now without a hospital. These villagers must now travel to either Jericho or to Bethlehem for medical care, cities that are at least an half-hour drive away. After the planned expansion of the settlement of Ma’ale Adummim, the villagers will no longer be able to reach Jericho city and will have only Bethlehem city to rely on, a city to be reached through a long bypass of dangerous curves with no side lights during the night. The MAIN Jerusalem Hospitals (Makassed Charitable Hospital as well as Augusta Victoria Hospital and the Red Crescent Maternity Hospital) are now on the opposite side of the wall, making treatment difficult at best, and impossible when closures at the gates prevent the citizens from reaching those hospitals.

Mrs. Terry Boullata, from the Lobbying and Advocacy department of PARC, also related her personal story about life under occupation in East Jerusalem with all the discriminatory Israeli laws concerning family reunion and services which were amplified with the construction of the Wall.

The tour concluded with a visit to the settlements of Pisgat Ze’ev and Ma’ale Adummim. The settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev now contains 35, 000 residents and is a small self maintaining city. The visit helped give the trade union members a clear understanding of what a settlement really is and the form it takes on the landscape. The PARC guides explained the local villagers’ fear of further expansion of these settlements, which would result in more confiscation of Palestinian lands.

The PARC guides expressed the urgent need for Europe to publicly recognize the plight of the Palestinians and the illegality of the building of the wall based on the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice in the Hague (ICJ). PARC also expressed the urgent need for International pressure on the state of Israel to halt the construction of the wall which has no sense of security but is to protect and annex the Israeli settlements to the state of Israel, undermining any possibility to resume the Peace process and the establishment of a Viable Palestinian State.

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