Israel is constructing its West Bank wall not to prevent suicide bombing attacks but to confiscate the land and put pressure on Palestinians to move away, a UN human rights investigator said on Friday.
"There is no compelling evidence that suicide bombers could not have been as effectively prevented from entering Israel if the wall had been built along the Green Line - the accepted border between Israel and Palestine - or within the Israeli side of the Green Line," John Dugard said in a report to the UN General Assembly, according to Reuters.
Dugard dismissed Israel's stated reasons for the wall.
"More constructive explanations" were that it aimed "to expand Israel's territory" and "compel Palestinian residents living between the wall and the Green Line and adjacent to the wall, but separated from their land by the wall, to leave their homes and start a new life elsewhere in the West Bank by making life intolerable for them," he said.
"Rich agricultural land and water resources have been seized along the Green Line and incorporated into Israel," he added. (albawaba.com)
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