OCHA/UNRWA Report on the Humanitarian Impact of the Wall

Four years after the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of the construction of the Wall inside the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), the United Nations - Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) issued in July 2008 their Update No. 8 on the Humanitarian Impact of the Wall.

The report covers findings of the OCHA/UNRWA gate monitoring survey on the humanitarian impact of the Wall in the northern West Bank as well as an analysis of impact of the Wall route on Palestinian communities, including updated statistics on the land and persons affected, with special reference to the declining economic situation in Qalqiliya City and the fragmentation of the Salfit district.

According to the report, in the northern West Bank where the Wall is already constructed, a restrictive permit and gate regime has severely limited the access of Palestinian farmers to their lands and water resources in the closed area between the Wall and the Green Line. The report focuses in its main part on the village of Jayyus, most of whose productive land is cut off in the closed area. The report also recorded the very negative impact of the construction of the Wall in that area such as increased unemployment, evidence of displacement especially among young men, and the transformation of a community which formerly exported food to a recipient of food aid.

The report also provides the following very alarming key notes on the Humanitarian Impact of the Wall route when completed:

• This route will run to 723 kilometers, more than double the length of the 1949 Armistice (Green Line), with 87% located inside the West Bank (including East Jerusalem).
• The Wall will isolate approximately 9.8% of West Bank territory, including East Jerusalem and No-Man’s Land.
• Approximately 420,000 settlers in 80 settlements will be located between the Wall and the Green Line.
• Approximately 35,000 West Bank Palestinians will be located between the Wall and the Green Line, in addition to the majority of the approximately 250,000 residents of East Jerusalem.
• Approximately 125,000 Palestinians in 28 communities will be surrounded on three sides by the Wall.
• Approximately, 26,000 Palestinians in 8 communities will be surrounded on four sides by the Wall, with a tunnel or road connection to the rest of the West Bank.

To OCHA/UNRWA Report on the Wall (July 2008)

Read more about the ICJ Advisory Opinion