The Middle East's 'Urban Prison'

"Gaza is the ghetto and Baghdad's Green Zone is the gold coast in a Middle East that is being reshaped by a new mixture of global capitalism and military power. They are the extreme cases of sheltered enclaves, surrounded by walls, military checkpoints and exclusive highways. But the imposing fortifications around Gaza make it a dreadful urban prison while the Green Zone is somewhat of a country club."

"Land use and building regulations administered by Israel, and the wall built around the occupied territories, are instruments that came out of the urban planner's toolkit for the creation of apartheid regimes. Land use and building codes create obstacles for Palestinian residents to build and rebuild, and are a pretext for Israeli confiscation of Palestinian land. According to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), between 1967 and 2006, Israel has demolished 13,147 Palestinian homes. Israel continues to build the giant Separation Wall, most of it on land that belongs to the Palestinians. The wall separates Israel and the West Bank in a way that produces significant advantages to Israel, including 85% of the territory and most of the water supply in the West Bank."