Saudi suicide bombers say more 'martyrs' follow
RIYADH (Reuters) -- In taped testimony filmed before they attacked a Riyadh housing compound last year, two young Saudi suicide bombers said they were fighting for a true Islamic state and vowed that more "martyrs" would follow them.
The tape, parts of which were broadcast on Friday by the Arab television channel Al Jazeera, appeared to show the first detailed video footage of preparations for the suspected Al Qaeda attack which killed 18 people three months ago.
The bombing was the second deadly strike last year in the Saudi capital on compounds housing foreigners. Both were blamed on Saudi-born militant Osama Ben Laden's Al Qaeda network. At least 23 top militants are still on the run and security forces remain on high alert across the kingdom.
The tape also showed armed men in balaclavas training to storm a house at a camp allegedly inside Saudi Arabia, and a celebration of the imminent death of Ali Ben Hamed Al Maabadi Al Harbi and Nasser Ben Abdullah Al Sayyari Al Khalidi, two bearded young men who appeared to be in their 20s.
The names matched those issued by Saudi authorities after they carried out DNA tests on the bombers' bodies at Muhaya, a compound which housed mainly Arab and Muslim families.
"We offer ourselves to establish an Islamic state and lift the oppression from Muslims everywhere," Harbi said in the tape. "Many young men are eager to carry out such martyrdom attacks. They are the destructive weapon to fight the enemies," said Khalidi.
The video appeared to show meticulous preparations for the attack, including the spray-painting of a pick-up truck in the colours of a security force vehicle and reconnaissance footage of the Muhaya compound by night.
It also showed what Al Jazeera said was film from a car on the night of the attack, with bursts of gunfire interrupting the driver's repeated murmur, "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).
The truck had a number plate marked 314, representing the number of Muslims killed in the battle of Badr, a clash between the first Muslims and their "infidel" enemies. The Muhaya bombing itself had been named "Operation Badr" by the militants, Al Jazeera said.
'Death is life'
Khalidi, a large man with straggly black hair, waved a machinegun cheerfully at a farewell ceremony before his suicide mission. Around 20 men, mostly masked in red kefiyeh head-dresses, chanted and waved rifles.
Both men declared their eagerness for death.
"Death is life, it is not death. Whoever doesn't die for the sake of jihad will die in other ways," said Khalidi.
"This is a worthless life. This life won't last even for kings, so what about us, the poor?" Harbi said.
Another extract showed a militant carrying what appeared to be a shoulder-held missile launcher. In the last year Saudi authorities say they have seized nearly 24 tonnes of explosives and large numbers of rifles, hand grenades and explosive vests.
Khalidi denied that their aim was to hurt Saudis and said they went to great lengths to hit foreigners instead of soft targets in the world's biggest oil exporter.
"If we wanted to destroy the state we could have hit the interests that people benefit from. This would have been much easier than killing a single American, and killing our citizens is much easier," he said.
Most victims of the Muhaya attack were Arabs and Muslims, a fact which destroyed much lingering support for Al Qaeda in the deeply conservative kingdom. Western critics have accused Saudi Arabia of fostering a permissive environment for militancy.

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SPIEGEL ONLINE - 07. Februar 2004, 15:00
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,285422,00.html
Interview zum Mzoudi-Freispruch
"Es ist selbstm?rderisch"
Die US-Nebenkl?gerin und Schwester eines Opfers des 11. September, Debra Burlingame, bedauert den Freispruch des in Hamburg angeklagten Abdelghani Mzoudi: "Er w?nscht Ungl?ubigen den Tod."
DDP
Mzoudi: Freispruch in Hamburg
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Frau Burlingame, sicher h?tten Sie Abdelghani Mzoudi gern f?r lange Zeit hinter Gitter gesehen. Halten Sie den Freispruch f?r einen Fehler des deutschen Rechtssystems?
Burlingame: Ich will das Rechtssystem nicht kritisieren, aber hat dieses Urteil Bestand, kann Mzoudi nie wieder in Deutschland wegen des 11. September angeklagt werden, selbst wenn sich neue Beweise finden. Das ist furchtbar. Ich bin ?berzeugt, dass die deutschen Richter das, was sie f?r rechtm??ig halten, umsetzen, aber ich stimme nicht mit ihren Schl?ssen ?berein: Mzoudis Freunde haben die weltoffene Stadt Hamburg ausgew?hlt, um ihre Tat zu planen. Und jetzt k?nnen sich solche Leute immer noch hinter dem Gesetz verstecken.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Das Gericht hat versucht, Aussagen des mutma?lichen 11. September-Planers Ramzi Binalshibh zu bekommen, der mit Mzoudi in Hamburg lebte und von den USA festgenommen wurde. Die Richter erhielten aber nur einen knappen Vermerk, demzufolge Binalshibh Mzoudi entlastet habe. Sind sie ver?rgert ?ber die US-Regierung, die weitere Protokolle gesperrt und die Aufkl?rung damit behindert hat?
Burlingame: Es verwundert mich, dass die Aussagen Binalshibhs eine solche Bedeutung bekommen haben. Er hat allen Grund zu l?gen, warum um Himmels willen sollte er Mzoudi beschuldigen? Die Terroristen wurden darin trainiert, wie sie nach einer Festnahme t?uschen und tricksen m?ssen. Wenn die Regierung Binalshibh dem Gericht ?berlassen h?tten, h?tte er neue Operationen verraten oder berichten k?nnen, wonach er von den Vernehmern gefragt wurde und was er geantwortet hat. Noch sind gesuchte Mitverschw?rer des 11. September auf der Flucht, und man kann davon ausgehen, dass es neue Terrorpl?ne gibt. Eine Aussage von Binalshibh h?tte die Ermittlungen gef?hrdet. Aber so oder so - was w?re sie schon wert?
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Finden Sie es so verwunderlich, dass ein Gericht das lieber selbst beurteilen w?rde?
Burlingame: Ich w?rde die Aufregung verstehen, wenn Binalshibh ein neutraler Zeuge w?re. Stattdessen lassen die Richter Mzoudi auf Grund der Aussagen eines Komplizen frei. Es f?llt mir schwer, das zu verstehen.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Auch das amerikanische Gericht, das sich mit dem 11. September-Verd?chtigen Zacarias Moussaoui befasst, will Binalshibh als Zeugen h?ren.
Burlingame: Stimmt, aber wenn es Moussaoui frei l?sst, gibt es immer noch die M?glichkeit, ihn als feindlichen K?mpfer zu behandeln.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Wollen Sie damit sagen, dass die US-Regierung ihn dann vor ein Milit?rtribunal stellt? Eine seltsame Rechtsauffassung.
Burlingame: Sie wird ihn nicht gehen lassen. Wir alle befinden uns in einem langen Krieg gegen den Terrorismus. Die demokratischen Staaten m?ssen endlich erkennen, dass Terroristen Vorteile aus unserem menschlichen Umgang mit ihnen ziehen.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Die Antwort der US-Regierung darauf sind Milit?rtribunale und die Zellen von Guantanamo. Gibt sie nicht gerade die freiheitlichen Prinzipien auf, die zu verteidigen sie f?r sich in Anspruch nimmt?
Burlingame: Es ist verst?ndlich, dass die Vereinigten Staaten nach einer solchen Attacke so reagieren. Bedenken Sie: 3000 Leute wurden umgebracht, und vermutlich waren die Terroristen entt?uscht, dass es nicht mehr waren. Die allermeisten Leute sind in Guantanamo, weil es Hinweise gibt, dass sie das Gesetz gebrochen haben. Ich glaube nicht, dass gesetzestreue B?rger etwas f?rchten m?ssen, und ich sehe nicht, dass Freiheitsrechte zur?ck gedr?ngt werden. Wenn ich Leute frage: Wo sind Sie pers?nlich eingeschr?nkt, kann mir niemand ein Beispiel nennen. Das ist ein rein akademisches Problem.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Da Sie sicher nicht mit Terrorverd?chtigen gesprochen haben, unterstelle ich mal, dass Sie B?rgerrechte f?r sie nicht uneingeschr?nkt gelten lassen wollen.
Burlingame: Das w?re aus meiner Sicht auch falsch. Denken Sie an Mzoudi: Der bestreitet zwar, mit dem 11. September etwas zu tun zu haben, andererseits w?nscht er Ungl?ubigen den Tod. Damit geh?rt er f?r mich in die Kategorie: Ist er kein Terrorist, w?re er einer. Vergessen sie nicht, dass diese Leute uns zerst?ren wollen. Es ist selbstm?rderisch, sie zu sch?tzen.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Was hoffen sie jetzt, da er frei ist?
Burlingame: Dass er nicht noch in Deutschland sein Studium beenden darf, wie er es plant. Mzoudi sa? mit den sp?teren Todespiloten zusammen und diskutierte den Hass auf die Welt, auf Amerika, die Juden. Und diese Typen will die deutsche Regierung willkommen hei?en?
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Ganz so ist es nicht. Er soll in seine Heimat Marokko ausgewiesen werden.
Burlingame: Und ich hoffe, dass Marokko ihn an die USA ?bergibt. Dann k?nnen wir ihn hier vor Gericht stellen.
Das Interview f?hrte Dominik Cziesche
? SPIEGEL ONLINE 2004
Alle Rechte vorbehalten
Vervielf?ltigung nur mit Genehmigung der SPIEGELnet GmbH

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German chancellor faces call for elections
Bertrand Benoit in Berlin
Published: February 8 2004 18:57 | Last Updated: February 8 2004 18:57
German opposition leaders called for fresh elections on Sunday as senior Social Democrats stepped up their attacks on Gerhard Schr?der, the chancellor, after his resignation as Social Democratic party chairman.
The attacks showed Mr Schr?der's resignation - a rare admission of defeat for a politician used to prevailing over critics - had profoundly shaken his authority. They also underlined how little of the chancellor's modernising ardour had percolated through the party in his five years as chairman.
In an unprecedented move by a chancellor, Mr Schr?der said on Friday he would hand over the chair to Franz M?ntefering, parliamentary floor leader. The party's executive endorsed the decision on Saturday ahead of an extraordinary congress on March 21, when it will be ratified.
Instead of silencing critics who had grown louder in recent weeks, the move prompted several SPD officials to suggest that Mr Schr?der had reached the end of his political career or that the government should roll back some of his reforms.
Heiko Maas, SPD leader in the state of Saarland, said the chancellor's decision, made last summer, to lead the party into a general election for the third time in 2006 should not be taken for granted. "Who runs will depend on the course of the next two years," Mr Maas told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, later denying it amounted to a call for a different candidate.
Harald Schartau, party chief in North-Rhine Westphalia, said the government should reconsider planned or recent measures resulting in additional costs for pensioners and medical patients. Wolfgang Thierse, deputy SPD chairman, said there could be "adjustments" to recent healthcare and tax reforms.
Meanwhile, Angela Merkel, leader of the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told Welt am Sonntag that Mr Schr?der's resignation as SPD chairman was "the beginning of the end . . . The best solution would be early elections as soon as possible."
The CDU and the CSU, its Bavarian sister party, enjoy a strong lead in opinion polls but their leaders are deeply divided over policy issues. It is also unclear which of Ms Merkel or Edmund Stoiber, the CSU leader and Bavarian premier, would lead the parties into an early poll.
A Forsa opinion survey showed 59 per cent of respondents against fresh elections, suggesting Mr Schr?der's move was seen as a matter for the SPD and not for the nation. Yet Sunday's attacks testified to the difficulty of the task facing Mr M?ntefering in restoring order in the party.
SPD officials have blamed Agenda 2010, Mr Schr?der's package of social security and labour market reforms adopted shortly before Christmas, for the largest exodus of members since the war and a string of electoral defeats last year. "We are forging ahead with the reforms," Mr M?ntefering countered on Sunday. "Agenda 2010 was ratified by two party congresses. We must all accept this. We are not going into reverse gear."
The collapse of the SPD's popularity has been of particular concern in the L?nder, where regional SPD organisations and governments will be on the electoral front line with 14 elections due this year.
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Gerhard Schr?der abandonne la pr?sidence d'un SPD traumatis?
LE MONDE | 07.02.04 | 14h28
Le chancelier allemand, Gerhard Schr?der, a annonc?, vendredi 6 f?vrier, sa d?mission de la pr?sidence du SPD, mettant en avant les "difficult?s de communication" pour expliquer au Parti social d?mocrate la n?cessit? des r?formes engag?es depuis quinze mois. M.Schr?der tire ainsi les le?ons d'une opposition grandissante ? sa politique au sein m?me de sa formation. L'Agenda 2010 pr?voit de profonds changements dans les principaux secteurs de l'emploi, de la protection sociale et de la fiscalit?. En chute libre dans les sondages, le SPD doit ?galement subir une v?ritable h?morragie de militants. Cette ann?e, plusieurs ?lections r?gionales et locales importantes sont pr?vues cette ann?e. Franz M?ntefering, actuel pr?sident du groupe SPD au Bundestag, succ?dera ? Gerhard Schr?der ? la t?te du parti.
Berlin de notre correspondant
Tirant les le?ons de l'impopularit? croissante de son programme de r?formes aupr?s de la base du Parti social-d?mocrate (SPD), le chancelier Gerhard Schr?der en a abandonn? spectaculairement la pr?sidence, vendredi 6 f?vrier.
Il a aussit?t proposer de la confier ? un de ses fid?les, le pr?sident du groupe parlementaire du SPD au Bundestag, Franz M?ntefering.
Cette grogne ?tait mont?e d'un cran, ces derniers jours, apr?s plusieurs cafouillages au niveau du gouvernement et la proposition de cr?er des universit?s d'?lite en Allemagne. Les sondages sont catastrophiques pour le SPD, cr?dit? par l'un d'eux de seulement 24 % des intentions de vote, et ce avant de nombreux rendez-vous ?lectoraux pr?vus cette ann?e aux niveaux local et r?gional.
La rumeur d'une d?mission a commenc? ? courir vendredi vers midi, lorsque le service de presse du SPD a annonc? de fa?on inattendue que Gerhard Schr?der, flanqu? de Franz M?ntefering, donnerait une conf?rence de presse ? 13 h 30. C'?tait bien d'une d?mission qu'il s'agissait, mais de celle de la pr?sidence du parti, fonction que le chancelier occupait depuis avril 1999, lorsqu'il avait remplac? Oskar Lafontaine, son ministre des finances, qui, en d?saccord avec une politique gouvernementale trop lib?rale ? son go?t, avait claqu? la porte du gouvernement.
Il n'a fallu que quelques minutes ? un chancelier ? la mine sombre pour annoncer aux dizaines de journalistes accourus en h?te sa d?cision de "se licencier", comme l'indique la cruelle manchette du Berliner Zeitung. Le chancelier a justifi? sa d?marche par les "difficult?s de communication" pour expliquer ? la base du parti les r?formes en cours, d?licat euph?misme d?signant la v?ritable fronde qui agite des f?d?rations enti?res du SPD.
Pris par ses obligations gouvernementales et internationales, le chancelier a ajout? qu'il manquait de temps pour s'investir dans le travail de persuasion que n?cessite la mise en ?uvre de "r?formes objectivement n?cessaires". Franz M?ntefering, fid?le parmi les fid?les, s'en chargera. "D?sormais je vais me consacrer enti?rement ? mon travail de chef de gouvernement", a ajout? le chancelier en soulignant que s'il quittait sans plaisir la direction du parti, au moins pouvait-il compter sur le nouveau pr?sident.
CRISE DU PARTI
Evoquant les prises de position et les pol?miques publiques dans sa formation, M. M?ntefering a soulign? que "les querelles internes devaient cesser". D?s samedi, les instances dirigeantes du SPD devaient se r?unir pour ratifier la passation de pouvoir et enregistrer la d?mission concomitante d'Olaf Scholz, secr?taire g?n?ral du SPD, s?v?rement critiqu? par son parti qui le juge peu performant. Un congr?s va ?tre convoqu? ? la fin du mois de mars 2004 pour ent?riner ces changements.
De nombreux sc?narios avaient, ces derni?res semaines, ?t? esquiss?s pour ?valuer ce que pourrait ?tre la r?ponse du chancelier ? la crise de plus en plus d?vastatrice qui frappe son parti. Mais personne n'avait apparemment envisag? qu'il d?missionnerait de son poste de pr?sident. M?me si ce n'est pas une obligation constitutionnelle, c'est en effet le plus souvent au chef du parti majoritaire qu'?choit la chancellerie.
Le c?t? spectaculaire de cette d?mission est en tout cas ? la mesure de la crise en cours. Volant de congr?s en assembl?es g?n?rales, Gerhard Schr?der, en 2003, avait r?ussi ? imposer ? un parti sceptique, voire r?ticent, ses douloureuses r?formes sociales. Mais il ne semble pas avoir eu le m?me succ?s aupr?s d'une population qui, depuis le 1er janvier, subit les premiers effets d?sagr?ables des r?formes de la sant?, du march? du travail, des retraites.
Les derniers sondages indiquent que si les ?lecteurs ?taient demain appel?s ? d?signer leurs d?put?s, ? peine un quart d'entre eux glisseraient dans l'urne un bulletin SPD. Cinquante pour cent, en revanche, voteraient pour les chr?tiens-d?mocrates.
Depuis 1990, le SPD a perdu de fa?on r?guli?re quelque 300 000 adh?rents, sur 950 000. Mais l'inexorable descente, qui va de pair avec une d?syndicalistation significative, s'est acc?l?r?e en 2003, ann?e au cours de laquelle le parti a perdu 40 000 membres.
Ces chiffres sont inqui?tants, alors que cette ann?e, quatorze L?nder et grandes villes renouvelleront leurs d?put?s r?gionaux et leurs conseils municipaux, promettant aux sociaux-d?mocrates de nouvelles d?faites et de nouvelles crises. Les responsables du parti ne parlaient que de cela ces derni?res semaines, haussant de jour en jour le ton de leurs critiques ? l'?gard de la politique comme de la personnalit? du chancelier.
"Le parti doit savoir que l'opposition fait partie de la d?mocratie, mais cette opposition doit venir des autres, pas sortir de nos propres rangs", a d?clar? M. M?ntefering lors de la conf?rence de presse, soulignant bien qu'il s'agissait d?sormais de serrer les rangs. Les m?mes causes produisant les m?mes effets, on voit mal pourtant comment les changements ? la t?te du parti, sans changement de politique susceptible de redonner une cr?dibilit? ?lectorale au SPD, suffiront ? ramener le calme.
Georges Marion
* ARTICLE PARU DANS L'EDITION DU 08.02.04
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Brussels reforms too slow, says Gordon Brown
By Ben Hall, Political Correspondent
Published: February 8 2004 21:54 | Last Updated: February 8 2004 21:54
Europe has been too slow in delivering economic reform and faces a struggle if it is to meet its target of becoming the world's most dynamic economy by 2010, Gordon Brown says in a report on Monday.
The report comes just weeks ahead of next month's Budget in which the chancellor is expected to rule out holding a new set of assessments on joining the euro. Mr Brown has always linked economic reform to British membership so the report will be a further blow to prospects for early British entry.
In its submission to next month's summit on economic reform in the European Union - the third such meeting since the process was launched in Lisbon in 2000 - the Treasury praises other governments for taking "tough decisions" to implement domestic reforms aimed at making their economies more flexible.
But the Treasury sounds a gloomy note about the EU's ability to raise its overall rate of employment to 70 per cent, perhaps the most important and challenging target set by prime ministers four years ago.
"The stark reality facing the Union is that these targets will not be met without a substantial increase in future rates of employment growth," the report says.
"Even in a more favourable global economic climate, job creation of this magnitude will be hard to deliver."
Amid recent optimism about prospects for the UK and global economies, Mr Brown believes the one dark spot is the slow pace of economic reform in Europe.
"Europe's recovery from the recent global slowdown highlights the nature of the challenge," the report says. "Compared with the US, the European economy has failed to recover as strongly, several member states experiencing recession. This cannot be explained by reference to cyclical factors alone."
The chancellor urges political leaders to do more to explain why Europe needs to liberalise its markets in products and services, make labour markets more flexible and restructure tax and benefit systems to promote employment. "Too often the underlying aim of the Lisbon agenda is not clear enough."
Mr Brown wants the European Commission to appoint a vice-president to take charge of reform so Brussels can give more leadership and impetus to the process.
The report also underlines Britain's determination - shared by France, Germany and other governments - to keep EU spending at the current level of 1 per cent of EU gross national income. The Commission will this week present plans to lift spending to 1.24 per cent of EU GNI in 2007-2013.
The government believes that a string of presidencies led by reform-minded governments - Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Britain - provide an opportunity to renew the commitment to the competitiveness agenda.
Among Britain's priorities are measures to cut red tape and extend the single market in services, a more proactive approach to competition policy and a crackdown on the most "distortive" state aid while allowing flexibility to deal with "market failure".
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IDF to pay big time to fix reservist call-up system
By Haaretz Staff
The Israel Defense Forces is expected to pay tens of millions of shekels in the upcoming months to fix a computerized call-up system for reservists. The system was installed just two years ago, and was meant to call reservists to their units as part of a "quiet call-up."
The original system contained a 9-digit field for reservists' mobile telephone numbers. In a few months, however, all cellular telephone numbers are to be changed to 10-digit numbers, and therefore, the system has to be updated accordingly.
The financial daily Globes reported yesterday that the IDF has appointed a special committee to look into the impact of this move. Various sources said that the repercussions could cost tens of millions of shekels.
The IDF took much pride when it inaugurated the new computerized dialing system two years ago. Instead of dispatching special reserve soldiers, the system automatically calls the reservists' cell phone, home, and place of work to pass on messages concerning his unit. The reservist needs to punch in his personal number and confirm that he has received the message.
The system, developed by a civilian company, proved to be very successful in trials and exercises. The planners, however, did not take one factor into consideration, namely that additional digits may be added to the cell phone numbers. The army will also look into expanding the fields for personal and other telephone numbers to prevent future problems.
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More money needed `to minimize fence's harm to Palestinians'
By Amnon Barzilai
The defense establishment is asking the government to add hundreds of millions of shekels to the budget for the construction of the separation fence, to finance measures to ease the disruptions that the barrier has created in the daily lives of Palestinians who live west of it.
If the addition is approved, the total budget for building the fence this year would come to over NIS 3 billion. This figure is predicated on the construction of 265 kilometers of fencing this year, at an average cost of NIS 10.5 million per kilometer.
In response to the international criticism of the way the fence's route interferes with Palestinians' daily lives, the Israel Defense Forces' deputy chief of staff, Major General Gabi Ashkenazi, set up a task force to draft proposals for improving the situation. The task force proposed a number of recommendations, including the following:
l Dozens of alternative roads, tunnels and gates in the fence should be built to connect Palestinian villages to major urban centers in the West Bank, or to other nearby villages, in cases where existing transit routes have been disrupted by the fence. Work on the first underground road, between the village of Habla and Qalqilyah, began last week.
l Israel should fund organized transportation for schoolchildren whose homes are separated from schools in another village by the fence. The IDF has already allocated NIS 160,000 to bus children in Hirbat Shabra.
l Israel should finance the establishment of a dialysis unit at Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem to ease the problems currently encountered at roadblocks by Palestinians trying to reach Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital for this purpose. In addition, five Palestinian ambulances should be placed under close IDF supervision, and these ambulances should then be allowed to pass through roadblocks swiftly, without the lengthy security checks to which ordinary Palestinian ambulances are subjected for fear that they might be smuggling explosives.
At a meeting with Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz last Thursday, officials in charge of the fence's construction said that the work was currently on schedule, meaning that by the end of the year, stage three of the construction will be completed and work will have begun on stage four. To date, almost 200 kilometers of fencing have been completed; if this year's timetable is met, there will be 461 kilometers of finished fence by the end of the year.
In total, the fence is slated to be 705 kilometers long; of this, 151 kilometers is the Ariel salient, which is slated to be built only in 2005.
The officials also told Mofaz that the 20-kilometer section of the fence from Har Avner to Tirat Zvi would be completed by July 2004.
One problematic section of the fence is the area around Baka al-Sharkiyeh. The fence was originally slated to pass east of this town, but the army later reconsidered and decided instead to raze 40 illegal buildings located between Baka al-Sharkiyeh and the Israeli town of Baka al-Garbiyeh, thereby enabling the fence to be built on the Green Line, west of Baka al-Sharkiyeh. This 8.5-kilometer section of the barrier, of which 800 meters will be an eight-meter-high wall, is slated to be completed by the end of this month.
In the meantime, however, the army has already wasted NIS 140 million on the abandoned route east of Baka al-Sharkiyeh; it is now considering razing these portions of the fence.
Completion of both the Baka al-Sharkiyeh and the Har Avner-Tirat Zvi segments will produce a continuous 196-kilometer stretch of fence running from the Jordan River to Elkana.