The Berlin Wall disappeared: There are others to demolish

The Berlin Wall disappeared: There are others to demolish

Western media commemorate "the fall of the Berlin Wall", but do not realize that there are many walls that should be demolished.

Western media, without exception, commemorate these days what they call the 30 years of "the fall of the Berlin Wall", placing it as a historical event of the greatest importance, but ... without realizing that there are many walls those that should be demolished precisely by those who celebrate the fall of the one built in Berlin.

Indeed, this type of constructions, destined to separate, divide, segregate and make the relations between our societies more unjust, we find them in America, Africa and the Middle East in the main form, even showing that these walls far exceed the collapsed Berlin Wall either in length, meters of height, number of dead and the repression exerted on the population to which this type of building is directed.

Remembering events such as the fall of the Berlin wall is an important event, which symbolically marked the end of a political system that became known as real socialism. Five years ago, when the date gave account of the fourth century of the end of that wall, which separated the socialist world from capitalism, I pointed out that it was appropriate and valuable to remember this milestone. Today, on another November 9 I think it is necessary to revive the writing, especially because nothing of the signed, nothing described has changed positively, but the segregation, separation, division and violation of people's human rights has increased affected by these walls.

The Berlin Wall was a concrete construction, which extended for 160 kilometers, forty-five of them dividing the city of Berlin in two and the rest that surrounded its western part separating it from the German Democratic Republic (GDR), began its construction on August 13, 1961. 28 years later, on the night of November 9-10, 1989, the world, live and direct, in a collective catharsis, witnessed the collapse, not only of three decades of a dividing Wall, but a political-economic model that came in frank fall since the decision of the Soviet nomenclature to direct its steps to another development model. This, after an exhausting fight against the United States and its allies since the end of World War II, in what was called the Cold War.

The Antifascist Protection Wall (Antifaschistischer Schutzwall) as the leaders of the GDR called it, the Wall of Shame as they called it in the west (Schandmauer) meant death, in figures in which there is still no agreement but that the Berlin Prosecutor's Office Signa in 270 people who tried to cross into the western part, of which thirty of them died as a result of the mine explosion. Ten deaths per year, on a tragic and embarrassing average for any political model but, especially for those who held that the freedom of man is an inalienable right and that they worked for the construction of a more just society.

The justification for the leadership of the GDR in building the Wall was based on the bleeding of citizens, qualified personnel and the flight of other citizens from eastern countries that crossed west from East Berlin. Between 1949 and 1961, about 3 million people left the GDR from East Berlin. It figures that in the first half of the month of August of the year 1961 meant the departure of 50 thousand people. Under the approval of Moscow, the ruling class of the GDR decided to build, first of a provisional wall consisting of a 165-kilometer-long and five-meter high fence. Deciding also the closure of 69 of the 81 city checkpoints. This resolution, not only had the sense of avoiding the bleeding of qualified personnel and people eager to flee to the West, but also to show a determination of strength before the Western world at a time when the ideological, industrial, military, aerospace and political combat between the East and West was in full swing.

This year 2019, three decades after the fall of that wall, we can see the continuation, development and creation of walls as shameful as Berlin's. Walls that have been erected under the most dissimilar arguments: grant security to the inhabitants of the country or territory that you want to protect. Isolate a territory and exercise repressive measures and actions there, making that society invisible. Prevent "undesirable" "foreigners" "undocumented" "illegal" "rapists and drug traffickers" as US President Donald Trump described to those Mexicans seeking better life opportunities beyond the Rio Bravo. Or we speak, simply, of people of other nationalities, who look for job opportunities in more developed countries.

 As well as walls destined to socially and economically separate members of the same society.

Faced with these creations, violating the rights of millions of human beings, the same that commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall today and strongly criticized its construction, silence, silence and even justify the construction of new separations, new divisions, new forms of having first and second category human beings. Along with the old Berlin wall, those walls of shame are still hidden, minimized and even justified, by much of the world's media.

Those walls do not deserve the concern of media such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, CBS, Fox News or CNN. The Times, Le Figaro, El País, Il Corriere della Sera. The Spanish, French, German television stations transmitted in detail each tribute to those who fell by the Berlin Wall, editorials, columns, opinions, reports and documentaries have realized the importance of the fall of the Wall of Shame in the heart of Europe and the triumph of freedom but ... beyond a certain enumeration of the other walls that populate our world, the voice has not been raised to demand the collapse of these constructions, ignominious, shameful, for it would undoubtedly mean biting the tail.

The wall of Moroccan shame

 In 2,735 kilometers of travel, subject to a strong and permanent military presence of the Moroccan Monarchy, this barrier, called by the Saharawi people as the "Wall of Shame" has enormous similarities to the occupation and constructions implemented by Israel with the Palestinian territories , who suffer the presence of an occupying power such as Israel. One of those parallels and amplified to dramatic levels, is the construction of this creation that extends throughout Western Sahara and separates the liberated territories of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic from those territories occupied by Morocco. Inspired by the Bar Lev Line, which Israel built along the Suez Canal and whose experience, with its technicians and the financial assistance of the Saudi monarchy, allowed the Alawite Monarchy to build this repressive creep in several phases.

They are 2735 kilometers of wall, with a height of 3 meters, equipped with moats, stone walls, fences, minefields, military fortifications, 160 thousand members of the Moroccan army, armament and technology of last generation, which divides the rightful owners of those lands of his brothers, who inhabit the liberated territories and the camps in Tindouf, in Algerian territory. Every five kilometers this wall has an infantry company quartered and every 15 kilometers a radar and artillery batteries (defined from radars to those devices such as the AN / PPS-15 that detects movements up to a range of 60 kilometers). Armed with weapons sold by Spain itself - a power that the chronically postponed referendum should guarantee - against the judicial decisions in this regard.

The mentioned wall is not a single construction, but is made up of eight segments, which have been erected between 1982 and 1987. A military barrier, which at a daily cost of 4 million dollars - financed with the extracted natural resources and stolen from the Saharawi people: Phosphate, fishing grounds - shows that the Alawite Monarchy remains committed to curtail the rights of an entire people, contrary to international law and the legitimate right of a people to return to what belongs to them and defend the so-called useful triangle, which includes the phosphate exploitation zone, the Saharawi cities and the border with the territories released by the SADR.

The wall of Israeli infamy
 
The Saharawi people join in this occupation policy, which the Palestinian people suffer. There, in the Middle East, in the occupied territories after the 1967 war, another wall, infamous and cruel, is part of a complex repressive system implemented by Israeli governments since 2002 (when construction began under the government of the late former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon) composed of a system of about 550 controls and blockades, built to control the population of 2 million Palestinians within the occupied territories in the West Bank. A creation of racial segregation, condemned by governments, international organizations and human rights organizations. Convictions, which for Israel and a blind society in human considerations mean nothing. And this will continue to be the case, as long as it continues to have the backing, support and financing of its main ally: the United States.

 The Wall of Infamy, enters the West Bank and fragments the geography of the West Bank, being part of a geography where hundreds of checkpoints and exclusive roads for settlers who illegally occupy Palestinian land. This is a structure with state-of-the-art surveillance technology: infrared sensors, tear gas diffusers among other gadgets. It includes barbed wire fences, ditches, areas with fine sand to detect fingerprints, watchtowers with permanent guards, paved roads on each side to allow patrolling of tanks and other security vehicles, as well as additional defense areas and areas Restricted of varying depth. Control and surveillance points that enter, in large part of its construction by Palestinian territory.

The design of the layout does not follow the meaning defined after the armistice signed between Israel and the Arab countries in 1949 - the so-called Green Line - but is constructed, as the Israelis themselves have pointed out “where it has a greater effectiveness”. And that is, having as a primary objective to surround with a security system the 50 illegal Israeli settlements where 80% of Jewish settlers inhabit, which also includes extensive cultivable areas confiscated from the Palestinians. Thus, a continuity of illegal settlements with Israel has been created in Palestinian territory while separating the area from the rest of the West Bank. Wall, which in turn is having its simile in front of the strip of gaza in such a way to continue having this Palestinian territory converted into the largest open-air jail in the world.

Although it is not yet concluded - about 80% of this concrete epheses is finished - one hundred thousand Palestinians living in 42 West Bank towns will live between the wall and the green line with Israel. A dozen of these villages and 50 thousand Palestinians will be completely surrounded by the wall. More than 10% of the Palestinian land in the West Bank, about 57,518 hectares, will be on the other side of the wall. More than half a million Palestinians will live within a one kilometer strip imposed by this infamous separation. In Al Quds - East Jerusalem - 200,000 Palestinians will be affected As well as the fact that large agricultural areas, tens of thousands of olive trees and large areas of agricultural land have been confiscated and destroyed, as well as the demolition of hundreds of households.

The theme of the wall was referred to the International Court of Justice in The Hague (CIJH) which, in an advisory opinion of July 2004, determined that this Wall violated international humanitarian and human rights law. The CIJH determined that Israel should stop the construction of the wall within the Occupied Territories, dismantle the sections already built there and repair the damage caused. So far that decision, as well as those issued by the Israeli courts themselves, have been dismissed by Israel, without implying any condemnation of the UN Security Council, sanctions for non-compliance with international resolutions, boycott decisions or sanctions. Israel, as well as Morocco, have violated international law and intensified its policy of occupation and repression against the societies to which they submit. The governments are silent, the international organizations do not carry out the work they must do and the macabre game continues its march of pain and death for millions of human beings.

Next to this wall built in the West Bank we must add the one that is being built in the Gaza Strip, since 2018, with even more monstrous characteristics than is a reality in the West Bank. The new wall is being erected with cement, six meters high and replaces the current border fence that separates the historic Palestine occupied by Zionism with the coastal enclave, subject to a severe blockade from 2006 to date. The Zionist media have revealed that the land separation wall with Gaza, Israel has two others: a maritime one about 200 meters long, 50 wide and six high that it is building and another underground some dozens of meters, formed by cement and a substance called Bantonite, to avoid the construction of tunnels occupied by those who wish to circumvent the blockade or perform resistance actions.

The wall of American segregation 
 
The wall of American segregation

The United States, who was one of the main enemies of the Berlin Wall, who worked for the fall of that creation and the political model that sustained it, is one of those who has created, in its border territory with Mexico, one of the fences and walls with more fatalities since construction began under the government of Democrat Bill Clinton. More than ten thousand human beings have died since 1994 when the so-called Operation Gatekeeper began with the declared objective of stopping the migratory wave coming from the south. That policy has meant that 500 human lives of immigrants, mainly Mexicans and Central Americans have been severed every year since 1994. Whether due to abuses by border guards, dehydration crossing the desert between the two countries, drowning in river courses or suffocated during the crossing in crowded vehicles of men women and children.

So far, the deaths by a Wall that separates the American dream of millions of immigrant men and women have generated 40 times more deaths in 25 years of existence than the 28 years of the Berlin Wall. The allegations of Amnesty International are added to this, which in an August 2014 report stated that “a surprisingly high number of migrant women suffer sexual abuse during their clandestine passage through Mexico to the United States. Six out of ten women who pass through Mexico in search of the American dream, instead of achieving it, are only abused by traffickers and police. ” However, even this numerical finding does not silence the voices that continue to call American society the most democratic in the world. Report that year after year repeats similar arguments and situations, without the US authorities, who often criticize everyone on human rights issues, have done something to prevent their own violations.

The Operation Gatekeeper, set out to create, under the administration of former President Bill Clinton, a fence that crossed the entire southern border of the country. Until today the built sectors are those that divide California from the Mexican state of Tijuana. Arizona from Sonora, New Mexico from Baja California and Texas from Chihuahua and Coahuila. This segregationist wall is composed of three sections of successive walls that have been equipped with the highest technology in the field of electronic surveillance: high-power lights, radars, electronic sensors, night vision cameras, motion detectors. All connected to the so-called Border Patrol. It is joined by a military elite corps, trained in matters to combat immigration and who have been provided with off-road patrols, helicopters and legal faculties that have deserved the rejection of human rights organizations.

The year 2011, under the first administration of former President Barack Obama, 1044 kilometers of the Border Wall had been built, expanded during these years to 1,120 kilometers. The idea of ​​the US administration, in agreement with the Senate in 2013, was to build a thousand kilometers more of the wall on the border with Mexico, which stretches for 3240 kilometers. The provision also included doubling the number of border agents (up to ten thousand). In addition, border surveillance drones were acquired for more than 10 billion dollars. Repression expenses, expenses in more weapons but zero dollars to generate development ideas in the countries from which these immigrants come.

After the coming to power of billionaire Donald Trump, the theme of the wall, its expansion and improvement in matters of surveillance systems instead of being attenuated, acquired greater prominence, with Trump's idea that the improvements in this repressive ademesio should be paid by Mexico: the victim paying the executioner. On September 27, 2017, work began in an uninhabited area near the Otay Mesa border crossing, east of Tijuana. Trump's promise to his constituents has been fulfilled despite international claims.

The House of Representatives itself approved in July 2017 the first game consisting of 1.6 billion dollars. In October of this year, this figure rose to 10 billion dollars when the National Security Committee of the US House of Representatives. UU. passed a border security bill that includes the aforementioned 10 billion dollars for the construction of a border wall with Mexico. “The proposal called the Border Security Law for the USA. UU., Raised by the president of the committee, Michael McCaul, was approved in a vote totally divided, by 18 votes in favor, of the republicans and 12 against, of the democrats. The project contemplates that the million dollar figure of 10,000 million will be divided equally for different budget items, the first of the 5,000 million dollars will go to improve the ports of entry and the second will go to the Patrol agents US Border and Customs. "

In September of the year 2019 according to statements by the spokesman of the U.S. Department of Defense. UU. Jonathan Hoffman, 3,600 million dollars were approved, which would be taken out of funds - destined in principle to the construction and modernization of military enclosures in the United States and abroad - in order to lift 280 kilometers of border wall with Mexico. For Nancy Pelosi, a fierce opponent of Trump, president of the House of Representatives of the United States, has described as "irresponsible" the decision of the Trump Administration to transfer funds dedicated to military construction. “Not only because it would subtract funds destined to the ever present argument of national security, the quality of life and the morale of US troops making the United States a less safe country. “Designating the Pentagon funds for the construction of the border wall with Mexico is a“ nonsense ”measure, and will only make the main causes of migration worse.

These initiatives are far from solving the problem of immigration and only benefit companies that produce equipment to monitor the border and politicians who make xenophobia, segregation and disregard for the rights of immigrants their voting base. As long as it does not go to the bottom of the reasons, which induce millions of human beings to emigrate, to look for better life prospects beyond their countries, the Rio Bravo del Norte will continue to be crossed by millions of wet backs.

It is paradoxical that, within the framework of globalization, which meant expanding relations between countries, opening borders, allowing the free flow of human beings, the only thing that freedom has in this third five-century period is financial capital. They move without restrictions. They travel from country to country without asking permission, without showing passports and without considering what skin color, race, ideology or religion.

The Wall that separates the Saharawi people, specifying the dominance of the totalitarian Moroccan monarchy from a territory that was outrageously abandoned by Spain in 1975. As well as the wall that Zionism has built to maintain its occupation and colonization of the occupied Palestinian territories since the year. 1967, as well as the wall that seeks to prevent the entry of immigrants to the United States, are proof of creations that threaten the human rights of millions of people, who must be denounced and make a policy that allows them to demolish and realize Saharawi and Palestinian self-determination and the free transit of those human beings who aspire to better life prospects beyond their countries of origin.

The walls fulfill their role of spearheads of the domain, separating in religious, economic, social, political and military matters. The echoes of the commemoration for the 30 years of the fall of the Berlin Wall, celebrations, documentaries, talks, special programs are extinguished and yet the other walls, the other barriers continue there within the framework of a worldview whose objective is to consolidate The goal of unique thinking, which is also to build a single market. On that plane, tearing down those walls becomes a moral, political and vital imperative.