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Apartheid wall is a term sometimes used to describe the Israeli West Bank barrier by its opponents. They refer to it this way because they argue that the extension of the barrier into the West Bank isolates Palestinian communities and consolidates the annexation of Palestinian land by Israeli settlements. The barrier, it is argued, is part of a "long-term policy of occupation, discrimination and expulsion," which effectively constitutes a form of apartheid.Template:Fn Although the Israeli government cites security concerns as the rationale for the construction of the barrier, opponents of the barrier point out that it also serves to separate, isolate and disenfranchise a particular ethnic group, and is therefore racially discriminatory. Opponents are also concerned that the barrier appears to redefine the boundary between Israel and the Occuppied Territories, and could be used to unilaterally define the borders of a future Palestinian state. These concerns have been echoed by Israeli left wing groups such as Gush Shalom and more recently by the Israeli State Prosecution itself (referring only to the part built beyond the 1949 Armistice lines).

It is estimated that 16% of the Palestinians in the West Bank live on what will become the Israeli side of the barrier, and it is feared that they will eventually be expelled or forced to migrate.

Defenders of the barrier reject both the "Apartheid" and "wall" designations, arguing that:

• Only seven percent of the barrier is walled, 93% is fenced.
• The goal of bantustans was to eliminate the rights of the majority South African black population, while the goal of the barrier is to protect Israeli civilians from terrorist infiltration and attack.
• The Supreme Court of Israel ruled that the barrier is indeed defensive and accepted the Israeli claim that the route is based on security considerations (Articles 28-30).
• Apartheid was a system established to disenfranchise citizens, based on skin color, from their own country; however, West Bank Palestinians were never citizens of Israel, and Jews and Palestinians are not racially distinct.
• The barrier is clearly not intended to separate Jews from Arabs, as over 1 million Arabs on the "Israeli" side of the barrier are full citizens of Israel, and constitute 15% of Israel's population.
• Apartheid involved the forced removal of about 1.5 million South Africans to bantustans, but the barrier causes no transfer of population. None of the 10,000 Palestinians (0.5%) who will be left on the Israeli side of the barrier (based on the latest February, 2005 route) will be forced to migrate.
• South African blacks did not seek the destruction of South Africa, but merely the reformation of the government; however, the majority of Palestinians in the territories dispute Israel's right to exist.
• Bantustans were created in order to force legal borders; however, the barrier is a temporary defensive measure, not a border, and therefore can be dismantled if appropriate.
• Apartheid was an outgrowth of imperialist, colonial policy; Israel's Jewish population consisted mostly of refugees with a deep historical relationship to the land.
• If this separation barrier is an expression of apartheid, then any number of similar defensive barriers around the world must also meet that definition.

Notes

Template:Fnb Peace under fire : Israel/Palestine and the International Solidarity Movement, ed. Josie Sandercock, et al. New York: Verso, 2004, p. 192.

• Israeli-Palestinian conflict