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So many misconceptions surround the fence that Israel is building around the West Bank, it is hard to decide where to begin to debunk those myths.

Let us begin with a hopefully persuasive point: It takes less amount of time for a suicide-bomber to walk from the Palestinian town of Kalkiliya to the Israeli city of Kfar Saba than what it will take a reader to go through the editorial page of today’s newspaper. In 15 minutes, a terrorist can cover that distance by foot, as some unfortunately did in the past.

During the first three years of this Palestinian intifada, 127 suicide-bombers crossed into Israel from the West Bank, killing 428 Israelis and wounding scores. Another 573 terrorists attempted to infiltrate during that period. May this information be compelling enough for those who claim that the Israeli government is constructing this fence for political, instead of security, reasons.

What do critics say?

• They say that the fence will not guarantee 100 percent immunity from terror attacks. This may be, true, but even if it «only» minimizes casualties, it’s worth doing. For that matter, there is an illustrating precedent. In 2001 a fortified fence was built in the Gaza Strip, and not even one suicide-bomber has made it through ever since.
• They say that Israel is erecting a wall. Some even call it, amazingly enough, a «Berlin Wall.» In fact, only five miles out of the 87 miles already constructed, constitute sections of concrete wall. The rest (about 95 percent of the barrier) is a chain-link fence with electronic sensors.
• They say that the fence creates hardships for many Palestinian farmers, that it cuts them from their sources of income (olive trees) and that it will keep workers from entering Israel. The West Bank fence already has 42 gates to facilitate access to Israel proper, and Israeli diplomats say that compensation will be assigned when appropriate.

Once again, the fence in the Gaza Strip provides an interesting reference. According to Maj. Gen. Doron Almog, former head of Israel’s Southern Command, with responsibility for the fence in Gaza, in December 2000 –just before construction of the fence began — nearly 3,000 Palestinians worked daily in the Erez Industrial Zone. As a result of the improvement in the security situation, 5,000 Palestinians work there today.

But even if the fence would cancel all benefits for the Palestinians, one may legitimately ask: What «perpetual right» do the Palestinian have to work in Israel in the first place? By what moral and logical standard should Palestinian olive trees take precedence over Israeli human lives?

• They say that the fence goes beyond the Green Line, taking «Palestinian land.» This is true, but one should note that we are talking about 3 percent to 4 percent of the disputed territories. As political analyst David Makovsky observed, portions of the fence are located inside the West Bank because close to 75 percent of Israel’s 226,000 settlers live in 5 percent of West Bank territory adjacent to the Green Line.

Even the maximalists call for annexing at most 10 percent to 15 percent of the disputed areas, which would still leave the Palestinian Authority in control of about 90 percent of the West Bank.

The real issue, however, is not that the fence seizes 3 percent or 4 percent of West Bank land but rather that it is in fact giving up more than 95 percent of it, as academic Barry Rubin aptly pointed out. In other words, the Sharon administration, with vast popular support, is in effect dividing the land of Israel, creating the space for eventual Palestinian self-determination in the disputed areas and putting to rest the false accusation that Israel is an expansionist state.

The late Yitzhak Rabin took office in 1992 vowing «To take Gaza out of Tel-Aviv,» as a campaign slogan had it at the time. A decade later, Ariel Sharon is trying to take the West Bank out of Tel-Aviv as well. Will critics abroad let him?

Julián Schvindlerman is a writer and journalist in Buenos Aires.