Israel’s new secret weapon: Cactuses

Settlers want parts of West Bank security barrier to be replaced with prickly pear cactuses; security officials welcome idea

Guy Mey-Tal|Published: 10.26.05 , 09:56

In the age of technology and computers, a simple local patent may help Israel negotiate a diplomatic and political minefield.

Settler leaders from Gush Etzion and Kiryat Arba have proposed to replace sections of the West Bank security fence with prickly pear cactuses, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported Wednesday.

Security officials apparently loved the idea.

“It’s just one of many proposals aimed at transforming the political fence into a security fence. Never in the past has a border been established in accordance with prickly pear trees,” said Gush Etzion Regional Council Head Shaul Goldstein.

Goldstein’s statement is but an abstract of a detailed plan that will be presented by the settlers’ leaders to Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and professional committees involved in building the security fence.

It all started during a meeting two weeks ago between Mofaz and representatives from the Gush Etzion and Kiriyat Arba regional councils following the drive-by terrorist attack near Gush Etzion in which two young women and a teenager were killed.

The settlers voiced their demands for more secure roads. “If we feel the IDF isn’t doing enough to protect us we will have to do the job ourselves. We’ll take positions on every hill in the area and guard the roads,” Mofaz was told.

Yet the settlers’ main focus was the security fence, parts of which are currently being completed around the Gush Etzion settlement block against the wishes of many residents in the area.

A petition signed by prominent community leaders demanded the route of the fence be altered. “We feel that the fence is being built by lawyers in the spirit of High Court judges. Therefore it is stuck by our houses, failing to grant us basic security. The fence’s main function is to prevent terrorists from crossing and this obstacle can be attained using bushes of prickly pear and radar cameras,” proposed Goldstein.

Near settlements like Efrat and Bat Ayin prickly pear bushes may prove to be more efficient and certainly cheaper than the metal fence, said Goldstein.

“A kilometer of prickly fence is cheaper than a kilometer of metal nets. Thorny shrubs are as effective as the metal fence, and no one can say that the thorny route is the border between Israel and a Palestinian state,” he argued.

According to Goldstein, senior security official have praised the idea which will be presented to defense minister Mofaz on Friday.

Meanwhile, settlers who attended the meeting with Mofaz two weeks ago argue that the defense minister has in principle acknowledged the need to expand settlement blocks like Gush Etzion.