The fence you've never heard of

While the "international community"works itself into hysterics over the "apartheid wall" Israel is building, the Saudis - perhaps the most vocal opponents of Israel's security barrier - are building their own wall on its border with Yemen. And guess what? The border is disputed, and the Yemenis argue that the wall cuts into their territory.

The international reaction: a massive yawn. Russell Grayson, in the Israeli newspaper Arutz Sheva, points out the hypocrisy:

...this ongoing construction could not possibly have escaped knowledge or detection by any of the various intelligence agencies and news services of the many powerful nations that have more than ample economic and political interests in the area, the United States included. However, not so much as the merest scintilla of news about this offending wall has made it into the coverage of any mainstream news bureau. Passing notice, in one or two short paragraphs buried in their less-important news areas, appears in the Arab media — Gulf News, Al-Jazeera, Arabic News. A few other sites parroting these same insignificant blurbs is all that can be discovered.

Indeed, despite a total scouring of news sources, not even a bit of information is available regarding the height, length, or breadth of this wall on what is a 1,350-kilometer border. There is some slight mention that a German firm, which had been retained to survey and demarcate that border, has been sent packing in the midst of its work — an ominous sign.

Nowhere is there any public international outcry, or even the least glimmer of indignant criticism. No country — beside Yemen — is so much as whispering in protest at all. Not one nation has asked the U.N. to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice. No one is raising the shrill shout of condemnation. What is all too noticeable is the booming volume of absolute silence on the issue upon the world stage. The U.N. Security Council is quite obviously far too busy using Israel as its whipping boy to give any consideration at all to what is a clearly parallel issue involving the construction, over vigorous protest, of a terror-barrier wall. Credibility is an absent commodity amongst the members these days, and it may long have been so.

Grayson says the issue is not whether the Saudis have the right to defend themselves from Islamic extremists in Yemen, but why the world is so adamant about denying Israelis the same right. (And, yes, I know about the Israeli wall cutting into the occupied territories, and that's a legitimate complaint. But does anyone really believe there'd be no protests if the wall stayed right on the "Green Line"?)

The Straits Times article to which I linked above is written by our old buddy, John R. Bradley, the British Chomskyite who edits the Saudi Arab News. His story bends over backwards to explain the security concerns which drove the Saudis to build their wall - but has his Arab News ever been so fair to the "Zionist entity"?

Posted by damian at February 16, 2004 10:17 AM