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Economist Goes Off the Wall

The latest print edition of The Economist examines Israeli reactions to the Islamist election victory in Egypt. Included in the article is this snippet: Israel’s generals are already battening down the hatches. They have speeded…

Simon Plosker
December 11, 2011
12:00 am

Reading time: < 1 minutes

The latest print edition of The Economist examines Israeli reactions to the Islamist election victory in Egypt. Included in the article is this snippet:

Israel’s generals are already battening down the hatches. They have speeded the construction of a vast concrete wall along Israel’s 240-km (150-mile) border with Egypt and deployed another brigade to patrol it.

“Vast concrete wall”? According to the IDF:

The fence is expected to stretch for the 240 kilometer-long Israel-Egypt border, from the Kerem Shalom area until Tabah. Part of the border will include a physical fence, while the other part of the fence will be equipped with alerting devices.

Could it be any clearer that this particular barrier will not be one long concrete wall? Where did The Economist come up with this or is this merely a repeat of the media’s misrepresentation of Israel’s West Bank security barrier, which is less than 3% concrete wall.

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Tags: Egyptian border, security barrier, security fence

Simon Plosker

With over two decades of experience in various non-governmental organizations in the UK and Israel, Simon Plosker returned to HonestReporting in October 2022 as Editorial Director having previously been part of the organization’s management team from 2005 to 2020. Prior to his first spell at HonestReporting, Simon worked in Israel for NGO Monitor, BICOM, and served for a short period in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. He was Managing Editor of the Geneva-based NGO United Nations Watch for two years before moving back to the frontline defending Israel from media bias. Simon has a BSoc.Sc in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Birmingham and an MSc in History of International Relations from the London School of Economics. He immigrated to Israel in 2001 from London.

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