Palestinians to estimate damages caused by Israel's Separation Wall

The Palestinian National Committee for the Register of Damages (PNCRoD) has launched an initiative to estimate the damages that have resulted from the construction of Israel’s Separation Wall which was built on occupied land in contravention of international law.

Procedures for the project began on Tuesday in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem in the Aida refugee camp, Al-Azza refugee camp, and the town of Al-Doha, which are all located next to the wall.

Head of the popular committee in the Aida refugee camp, Sameer Atta, said that the procedures were being conducted as a national campaign that aims to accelerate the process of bringing down the Separation Wall in accordance with United Nations resolutions.

Atta said that merely compensating Palestinians for the cost of their land that was confiscated by Israel to build the wall would not bring justice. He said that Israel should also compensate Palestinians for the decades of economic losses suffered as a result of land seizures, taking into account the lost profits from not being able to cultivate their agricultural lands since Israel occupied the territory.

He stressed that Palestinian citizens must cooperate to help the committee in its campaign against the existence of the Separation Wall.

Israel began building the Separation Wall in 2002, and the route has been the target of regular demonstrations by border towns whose land is cut off by it. Israel has regularly confiscated large plots of Palestinian land in order to build the wall. When the 435-mile barrier is complete, 85 per cent of it will have been built inside the occupied West Bank.

In 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled that the Separation Wall was illegal and “tantamount to annexation”. PNCRoD was formed following an order by the International Court of Justice in 2007.