10 Modern Border Walls You May Not Know About or Forgot
By: Nicholaus Hines - ATI 3-18-19
RE:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/mode...r-walls-photos
Donald Trump has invigorated the idea of the border wall. Historically, he isn't alone.
On June 23, 2015, Donald Trump announced a crucial detail of his plan for a U.S.-Mexico border wall: he was going to build it (and “very nicely”), but Mexico was going to pay for it.
This wall along the southern border of the United States (will be #10) — which Trump argued will keep the Mexican “rapists” and “criminals” out of the our country — which has since become a key component of Trump’s successful bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
Trump and his supporters aren’t alone in viewing a physical wall as a way to secure a given region — and they never have been. Border walls have composed an integral part of both inter- and intranational relations throughout human history. There is of course the Great Wall of China, which was built to keep out nomadic Mongols.
#1 North Korea
The walls between South and North Korea survive to this day as a physical remnant of the Cold War, which symbolically ended with the fall of yet another wall — the Berlin Wall.
#2 The Berlin Wall
When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the world was, on its face, more united. Yet walls continue to divide populations across the globe, and since the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, walls have seen an increase in popularity.
Here are seven border walls you might not know about, and the ways in which they have and — more often than not — haven’t worked.
#3 Spain and Morocco
Contrary to popular belief, Spain doesn’t fit neatly into the Iberian Peninsula alone. Two of its southernmost cities, Ceuta and Melilla, spill into the neighboring north African country of Morocco. In both cities, walls keep African refugees and potential immigrants out of Spain, and therefore out of the European Union.
Spain’s control of these two cities dates back hundreds of years. But it wasn’t until 1995 that Spain built the first modern fence — with funding from the EU –with the specific goal of keeping immigrants out. Support for the wall, as well as its expansion, increased in recent years out of ISIS-related fears.
To an extent, the wall has worked. Fewer migrants make it into Spain and the EU from Africa, but a fair amount still make it in by swimming around the border. Unfortunately, many are also simply killed right there in the water.
#4 Egypt and the Gaza Strip
Thanks at least in part to walls, the Gaza Strip has a severe import problem. Residents find it hard to get the goods they need to survive due to the Israeli wall on its eastern border and accompanying trade embargo.
Gaza’s western side doesn’t fare any better. Tight border barriers have long existed there, particularly at the crossing point at Rafah, but Egypt has recently become more strict about sealing it off. After the Islamist group Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, Egypt made their wall even more imposing.
In some ways, these borders compound the problems they were meant to solve — and justify their further use. For instance, some have built tunnels to get goods and weapons into Gaza from Egypt, giving way to a constant and literally explosive battle. In response, Egypt’s government built their latest wall of solid, bomb-proof steel and extended it as much as 100 feet down into the ground to keep smugglers out.
Still, some Egyptians oppose the wall because it can hurt trade. Nevertheless, the Egyptian government, as well as the United States government, supports the wall. As for its effectiveness, the Associated Press reports that within a year of the wall’s construction, it had been breached hundreds of times.
#5 Israel and the West Bank
Still under construction, the wall separating Israel and the West Bank will ultimately be about 440 miles of concrete and barbwire. Since that construction began in 2002, this hotly-contested barrier has been called everything from a security necessity to an “apartheid wall,” depending on who you ask.
Israel unilaterally began construction in order to, it claims, keep Palestinian attackers from entering Israeli territory. However, the wall has since veered into Palestinian territory that doesn’t fall within Israel’s borders, causing many Palestinians to claim that the barrier is a tool used for unlawful annexation.
Indeed, the International Court of Justice at The Hague deemed the wall illegal and called on Israel to take it down in 2004 (the United Nations likewise condemned it by a vote of 150 to 6). Instead, it has spread even further, and reaches heights of 26 feet in some locations.
In making their case for the wall, Israeli wall proponents cite the sizable decreases in violent incidents since the wall has gone up. However, fact checkers have shown that those decreases — sometimes quoted as being larger than 90 percent — are substantially inflated.
#6 Cyprus
Tucked away in the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Turkey, the island of Cyprus is a hotly-disputed territory. In 1974, Turkish forces invaded Cyprus to wrest it from Greek control, and it has remained in political limbo ever since.
A wall separates the northern Turkish side from the Greek southern side, and both countries still lay claim to the island and its land. While the wall has kept the nationally unrecognized Turkish province physically separate, it has caused a political rift that extends beyond Cyprus’ borders.
The EU and the United Nations recognize the island’s south side, while only Turkey can trade with and access the north. This division, and by relation the wall, has played a role in keeping Turkey out of the European Union.
#7 India and Pakistan
India and Pakistan have been fighting since 1947, when British colonial rule ended in the creation of the two countries as we now know them. The countries, which both now have nuclear weapons, continue to be a site of brinkmanship to this day.
Acts of military showmanship along the countries’ many border walls still take place daily, though both networks of tunnels and wall weak points keep these barriers from being fully effective. According to NBC, India has tried to use cameras, camels, and cowbells to make the wall more effective in keeping Pakistani militants out. Nothing has been 100 percent effective, and tensions between the two nations remain high.
In January 2016, the countries suspended peace talks after India blamed Pakistan for letting militants cross the border to attack an air base. In response, India is expanding the wall in Punjab state with laser sensors that will alert security forces of any breaches. The cycle continues.
#8 Border Walls: Belfast, Ireland
For much of the latter half of the 20th century, Northern Ireland tore itself apart. British Protestants, known as Loyalists, and Northern Irish Catholics, known as Nationalists, were consistently at each other’s throats. The former wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK and the latter hoped the area would become part of Ireland.
Starting in the late 1960s, Northern Ireland erected walls in its capital of Belfast in order to curb the violence. Initially meant as a temporary measure, the walls proved effective enough to justify not only keeping them up, but building many more.
To this day, even after the 1998 “Good Friday” Agreement effectively ended the conflict, dozens of walls still stand in Belfast, the Guardian reports, because people are worried about the disruption that taking them down would cause — not to mention the cost.
Yet the walls have proven to be a catch 22. Foreign investment won’t come to Northern Ireland while the walls stay up, but the walls won’t come down until there is enough money and popular support to remove them. That’s not to say that they’re permanent, though: in 2013, Northern Irish leaders pledged to have all the walls down by 2023.
#9 Both Malaysia and Thailand.
Constructed their own walls in the 1970s, largely to decrease the incidence of smuggling and keep communist guerrillas from entering Malaysia through Thailand.
It has since been strengthened, once again in an effort to bar smugglers from bringing in untaxed goods and illegal materials.
But in building two walls, Malaysia and Thailand have created a ten meter-wide middle ground between the two countries, becoming a safe haven for smugglers and drug runners — and helping keep the two countries from building a strong symbiotic relationship.
#10 The United States Wall
We all love wall's - we have walls in our house and outside, for our Prisoners and for Business.
Pretty soon we will have a wall around the USA - make it look like one big detention center with on US personal in it. That sounds really swell.
Everybody needs a wall why is Trump so different wanting one.
Next the Canadian Wall and;
Then The East Coast and West Coast Walls.
We've got walls around jails and prisons.
Let's talk about insecurity - are we there yet - The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave - hmmm.
But let's also not forget where there's walls there are TUNNELS under these walls - if they want to get in or out?
Wall's are not going to stop them.
Boats