The chief military architect of Israel’s security fence says the controversial barrier has been effective, drastically reducing the number of terrorist attacks originating in the West Bank.

Dany Tirza, a retired colonel, said at a Combined Jewish Appeal (CJA) event on Oct. 27 that between 2008 and 2013, there were 15 such attacks in Israel, resulting in 100 casualties, including 36 deaths.

He contrasted that with the peak period of Palestinian terrorism during 2001 and 2002. Over those two years alone, there were more than 7,500 incidents, resulting in almost 4,500 casualties, including more than 650 deaths.

Not only has the barrier stopped attackers and weapons smugglers from entering Israel, but it has also prevented Israeli Arabs from getting in, he said.

Nevertheless, he said, no wall in the world is absolutely impenetrable.

Tirza, who was in Canada for the first time, was speaking to the CJA’s Maimonides Society, composed mainly of doctors and academics. He was tapped in 2002 by then prime minister Ariel Sharon to design and build the barrier, which was opposed by many in Israel, he said. 

Tirza had since 1994 been in charge of formulating Israel’s security position in its negotiations with the Palestinians, and continued in that post until 2007 when he retired from the military. He can claim to have met PLO chairman Yasser Arafat “many times.”

Surprisingly, the man detractors have called “Mr. Wall” urged greater understanding of the Palestinians and emphasized that he yearns for the day when Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in their own states. However, he believes the only way to achieve peace is if the two peoples are separate.

Tirza said he has many friends on the other side of the fence, and regrets that he only meets them when they go abroad for negotiations. He also regrets that Israeli politicians often use blame of the Palestinians to unite the country.

“If we don’t understand the Palestinians’ narrative, we do not understand what this conflict is about,” Tirza said at the event, held at the Jewish General Hospital.

To illustrate the conflicting Israeli and Palestinian versions of history and the current situation, Tirza and Henri Levy, a retired lieutenant-colonel who was winding up his term as Israeli shaliach to Federation CJA, engaged in a half-humorous, half-serious skit, The Two Sides of the Fence. 

Levy, as “Mohammed” and dressed in keffiyah, kaftan and false mustache, spoke with the insight he gained while responsible for Israeli-Palestinian civil negotiations for the Israeli Ministry of Defence.

Tirza insisted that Israel “does not want to rule the Palestinians. We are offering the solution of two states. If there is one state, the majority will be Arab and soon it will be a Jewish-free state…

“We didn’t annex the West Bank, we went to negotiations. You live in your areas and we live in ours, and have normal relations…We do not want to take [the Palestinians’] property. If we need [some land] for security reasons, we will offer compensation,” Tirza told “Mohammed.”

As “Mohammed” pointed out, the security barrier, when completed, will encroach on about nine per cent of Palestinian territory, cutting 22 kilometres deep into the West Bank at certain points.

Tirza recalled that the Labour government of Ehud Barak, which preceded Sharon, did not want to build a barrier, even after the second intifadah was launched.

Instead, it blocked all roads between the West Bank and Israel and set up 14 checkpoints. “That was like putting gates in the desert,” Tirza said. “They were easy to bypass.

“The government then sent the army to catch the terrorist leaders. In less than two weeks, more than 100 leaders were caught, but it didn’t help…Next morning there were two new leaders,” he said.

“Then the government said [to] hit the labs where explosives are made. We got over 300 labs, but it didn’t help because you can make explosives in your own kitchen.”

By 2002, terrorism had reached such a level that the streets of Israel were filled with soldiers and police, and the public was demanding something more be done, he said. Sharon asked Tirza to put a barrier up as fast as possible.

“People were very, very nervous. Every 90 minutes there was some attack. In one month alone, 139 civilians were killed.” 

Still, the idea of building a barrier around the West Bank was not wholeheartedly supported in Israel, he said.

Among Palestinians, the resistance was both violent and legal, notably going to the International Court at The Hague.

Israel’s Supreme Court, under president Aharon Barak, agreed to hear appeals from the Palestinians, and 124 petitions were filed.

“There’s not another state in the world where a non-citizen can apply to a court. Barak sat on the bench for every one of the 124 cases, and I had to defend each one,” Tirza said.

“I’m not a lawyer, but I lost only five cases.”

Tirza said the route of the barrier does cut into the West Bank, in three places past the Green Line, including the Jewish settlement of Gush Etzion.

“But it is not a political boundary. In the end, when there is a final agreed line, it will be changed in a lot of places,” Tirza said. “I promise that.”

The push for peace has to come from the people, Israelis and Palestinians, not from governments, he said. “We have to tell our leaders to sit together with the Palestinians and not get out of the room until there is an agreement. I hope my children do not have to fight the Palestinians. I want to be the one to take the first stone [off the wall] in Jerusalem."