In his July 7 letter to the Los Angeles Times entitled “Wall’s Horrific Effect,” Eugene O’Carroll makes the unsubstantiated claim that Israel’s barrier “will absorb as much as 60 percent” of the West Bank.
That figure quadruples the barrier’s actual projected impact on West Bank land. As the Los Angeles Times has repeatedly reported, even the United Nations, hardly a pro-Israel body, put that number at 14 percent. On July 1, Laura King correctly reported: “The U.N. said in a report last year that by pursuing the planned route, Israel would expropriate 14 % of the West Bank” (“Israel’s High Court Puts a Dent in West Bank Barrier”).
The Times had previously reported on the U.N.’s findings on Nov. 12, 2003 (AP, “U.N. Says Wall Gives Israel 14 % of West Bank”) and on Feb. 22, 2004 (Ken Ellingwood, “Fence Leads to Heart of a Great Divide”).
Spreading misinformation condemns the region–in O’Carroll’s words–”to decades more of violence, suffering and instability.”