MIDDLE EAST: Nuala Haughey in Jerusalem meets the author of a new book on Israel's controversial wall
Ray Dolphin clearly recalls the precise moment when he began to grasp the devastating humanitarian and political impact Israel's massive West Bank barrier would have on Palestinians.
It was January 2003 and the Irish aid worker was distributing food to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank village of Jayyus as part of his then job with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
Little was known then about Israel's controversial "security" barrier, which was eventually to be declared illegal by the International Court of Justice because it is built largely on occupied land.
"We were doing food distribution and I saw this huge gash winding through the hills and I remember asking somebody 'what's this' and he said 'it's the wall'. I said 'what's the wall'?" recalls Dolphin (48) who has since left his UN job but still lives in Jerusalem. "We drove along it and it was a revelation to see how wide and long the land levelling was. That was the first time I saw the impact, and then it was quite clear that it would cut off most of the land of Jayyus, which of course it did."
Dolphin continued to track the wall's route for the UN agency, eventually turning his knowledge into a book just published by Pluto Press, The West Bank Wall: Unmaking Palestine.
It would be almost another year before an official map of the 670km (416 miles) long barrier would be published, so Dolphin relied on maps the Israeli army used to confiscate Palestinian lands to make way for the barrier.
"When we got the first official map I realised this was going to be a major humanitarian and political disaster. That's when we realised how important it was."
Israel has since dropped its initial insistence that the barrier - a network of razor-wire topped electronic fences, patrol roads, trenches, concrete walls and lookout posts - was purely a security measure to protect its citizens from Palestinian terrorism.
The structure, almost half of which has been completed to date, effectively annexes to Israel 10 per cent of West Bank land, including 48 illegal Jewish settlements where the vast majority of Israeli settlers live.
Israel's acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who is hoping to lead his Kadima party to victory in elections on March 28th, said recently that by 2010 no Israeli settlers would remain on the eastern or "Palestinian" side of the barrier. In addition to the fence becoming the future eastern boundary of the Jewish state, Mr Olmert has said he also wants to hold on to the Jordan Valley along the West Bank's eastern border with Jordan.
So what of that landmark international court ruling in July 2004 that the structure is illegal where it is built on occupied land and that it should be taken down and Palestinians affected by it compensated?
The EU, which is Israel's major trading partner, could impose sanctions by suspending or part suspending a joint trade agreement, which includes a clause calling for respect for human rights, says Dolphin.
But it has not done so. "It's clear that there is absolutely no political will on the part of the EU or the UN to enforce the court opinion," he adds.
Dolphin estimates that when the wall and its accompanying infrastructure of terminals, tunnels and roads is complete, the West Bank will be dissected into isolated cantons. Palestinians fear that Israel's drive to set its boundaries on its own terms will leave them with an emasculated entity lacking economic viability.