Press Fury at Baghdad Wall

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/24/724/

Press Fury at Baghdad Wall
by BBC News staff

BAGHDAD - A controversial wall being built by US forces in a Baghdad’s Sunni district on a mainly Shia east bank of Tigris has been roundly condemned by papers both in Iraq and wider region.Fears are expressed that the wall will turn the capital into “a big prison”, exacerbate sectarian tensions and trigger the construction of similar barriers elsewhere in the country.

A Syrian daily urges Iraqis to rise up and fight what it sees as part of wider US-Israeli efforts to isolate Arabs or “face extermination”.

BASIM AL-SHAYKH IN IRAQ’S AL-DUSTUR

The sectarian isolation wall… is a hateful gesture feared to recur and spread in Baghdad until we find ourselves in the coming days in need of visas or special permits to enter this or that area. We are not against security precautions as such… but we also hope that this will not be done at the expense of our moral and inherited values.

KADIM AL-MIQDADI IN IRAQ’S AL-ZAMAN

People of al-Adamiyah, rise up and destroy this wall… produced by Israeli factories in Tel Aviv! These are the same barriers that isolated Palestinian villages and cities from each other… under the pretext of defending Israel security. Don’t forget that the Pentagon is behind the idea of establishing closed Iraqi communities with the aim of establishing sectarianism.

ABD-AL-BARI ATWAN IN PAN-ARAB AL-QUDS AL-ARABI

Today it’s al-Adhamiyah, tomorrow it will be Basra, the day after Mosul and the day after that Kirkuk - until the whole of Iraq becomes a Bantustan - a sectarian ghetto which closes its doors to strangers from other ghettos. There is no national identity anymore, only sectarian and racial identity.

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[TwilightGardener]

1. Oh geez, we stepped in it again.