Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon claims that his pullout from Gaza will end Israel’s responsibility for the Palestinian population. However, Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies pointed out that under international law the besieging power has the same responsibilities for the population it is besieging as an occupying power has for a population living under occupation. Bennis spoke at the Palestine Center on Monday April 26th, having just returned from a fact-finding mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Read more about Sharon's Plan: A Shift from Occupation to Siege 

With a total projected length of 650 kilometers-twice the size of the Green Line-Israel’s so-called “security” Wall is the final act in pre-empting an independent and viable Palestinian state. Israel, argued Stephanie Khoury, a legal advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Negotiations Affairs Department (NAD), is using the Wall to consolidate and expand Israel’s hold on Palestinian land in order to facilitate further settlement expansion. According to Khoury and Fuad Hallak, a technical advisor to the NAD, the Wall is a means for Israel to de facto annex approximately 55 percent of the West Bank from its central, western, and eastern areas, including the Jordan Valley. Read more about The Apartheid Wall's threat to a viable Palestinian state