tel aviv | Every week, Nezah Mashiah drives to the West Bank and surveys the largest building project in Israel’s history.
The project — a high-tech network of sensors, barbed wire and cement walls — is Israel’s new security barrier, the thing that Israeli citizens and politicians hope will save the country from the ravages of terrorism.
Mashiah — whose name translates roughly as “eternal messiah” — is the man in charge of its construction.
International condemnation of Israel’s decision to build a security fence inside the West Bank has been in the headlines for months. But the fence’s actual construction quietly has drawn the interest of a few foreign governments — for reasons having nothing to do with politics.
According to Mashiah, a number of countries — he would not identify them — have consulted Israel on the fence’s technology and construction with an eye to similar projects at home.
Since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Cabinet decided to embark on the project in July 2001, some 124 miles have been built to separate Israel from the West Bank.
At first, the barrier was to be 50 miles long. Then, citing the intensification of Palestinian terrorist attacks, the government said it would build a longer barrier to run from Beit Shean in the north to Arad in the Negev desert.
Now the government is calling for a total of some 500 miles of fencing by the end of 2005, at an estimated cost of $4.15 million a mile.
Mashiah distances himself from the politics of the fence and the controversial decisions behind its route — it bows into the West Bank in places to incorporate major Israeli cities and towns in the West Bank.
Built as a “multilayered fence system” in Defense Ministry parlance, the barrier is designed effectively to separate Israel from the Palestinian population of the West Bank.
The structure — which has an average width of about 164 feet — is made up of several components. Among them is a stack of six coils of barbed wire, a ditch 6 to 8 feet deep aimed at blocking vehicles from crossing and roads on either side of the fence so army patrols can pursue infiltrators.
At the center of the system is what officials call “a metal intrusion detection fence,” featuring sensors to warn against incursions. If someone tries to cross, a warning is sounded.
The fence is not electrically charged, and the Defense Ministry maintains that no one can be harmed by touching it.
Strips of sand nearly 10 feet wide have been placed alongside the fence to detect intruders’ footprints. Finally, there are watchtowers, cameras, heat sensors and touch detectors. The cameras are rigged for long-distance viewing and can detect whether or not suspected infiltrators are armed.
In a few places — where the army says there is a risk of sniper fire on Israeli roads — concrete walls as high as 28 feet have been built. Concrete walls also are being used to separate some Palestinian villages that abut Jerusalem, such as Abu Dis, from the city proper.
Mashiah said there were no existing buildings or property destroyed along the fence’s route, except for one building where the Palestinian owner had requested compensation, but that in the future there will be a “buffer zone” of 100 yards around the fence within which no buildings can be built taller than two stories.
Mashiah, a civil engineer by training, spent 23 years in the army working in construction. He returned to the military fold from his job as general manger of road construction at Solel Boneh, one of Israel’s largest construction companies, to take on what he calls the “ultimate mega-project.”
Sitting in his office at the Defense Ministry compound in Tel Aviv, facing a large map of Israel and the West Bank, Mashiah describes the organization behind the massive undertaking.
The management team’s first task was to put notices in newspapers advertising contract bids.
Mashiah then hired 25 contractors, who in turn hired crews for the project.
While hiring proceeded, light aircraft were sent out to survey the area. Using computer and mathematical modeling, topographical maps were made that became the basis for planning the fence, based on a route decided by Israeli government officials.
Notices were posted on trees and electricity polls in areas where the fence would be built, alerting landowners. The landowners were given a week to file appeals in court if they opposed the project.
If they opposed the planned building, landowners were given seven working days to file an appeal to the Defense Ministry. If they were not satisfied by the ministry’s answer, they had another seven days to file an appeal to the Supreme Court.
As long as a case is in legal dispute, the army does not build on that section of land. Hundreds of appeals currently are pending at the Defense Ministry, and several dozen have been filed at the Supreme Court.
He said Israeli authorities were trying their best to make life better for Palestinians affected by the fence. Meanwhile, he said, the fence holds the fate of both peoples.
“It’s a good fence,” Mashiah says, his eyes falling upon the map on the wall. But whether “it will bring good neighbors, we will see in the future.’
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