Donald Trump’s proposal to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border has created a lot of discussion among voters as to how effective a wall would be in preventing illegal immigration. However, a wall will be constructed to separate two areas that have been engulfed in conflict for decades.
Israel is planning to move forward in constructing a massive concrete wall along the country’s entire border with the Gaza Strip, according to Breitbart. The wall will stretch along the 60 miles of the southern border around the Gaza Strip and extend tens of meters underground in response to two Hamas terror tunnels leading into Israel that were discovered in April and May.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made the construction of new barriers a major national security priority. Netanyahu announced in February that he is working to surround the entire country with fences and barriers.
“At the end, in the state of Israel, as I see it, there will be a fence that spans it all. I’ll be told, ‘This is what you want, to protect the villa?’ The answer is yes. Will we surround all of the state of Israel with fences and barriers? The answer is yes. In the area that we live in, we must defend ourselves against the wild beasts.”
Netanyahu said the plan will take several years to complete. The Israeli government will also work to close breaches in the security barrier that straddles the West Bank.
While Israel’s barriers are focused on keeping terrorists out of the Jewish state, another major reason that the Israeli government is pushing to surround its country with walls is to prevent the flow of African migrants attempting to cross the Israel-Egypt border. Israel completed construction of a border fence along the Israel-Egypt border in 2013. Unauthorized entries into Israel from Egypt decreased greatly since then.
Israel began constructing the West Bank security barrier in 2002 at the height of the second intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israel. When a significant and continuous section of the security fence was completed in 2003, Israel saw a marked decrease in the number of suicide bombers able to penetrate Israeli cities.
Israel’s commitment to building walls comes at an interesting time with Donald Trump making his proposal to build a wall, considering the fact that one of the reasons Israel built a wall at its border with Egypt was to prevent unauthorized immigration.
Building a wall surrounding the Jewish State is a far less daunting task than Trump’s proposed 2,000-mile wall, as Israel is about the same size as New Jersey. However, the success the walls have had at preventing people from entering Israel could help Trump justify his proposal.
