The erection of a “high voltage electric curtain” along the Israel-Jordan frontier as a method of halting infiltration and cross-border incidents was proposed here by the newspaper Economist. The paper visualized protests against the scheme by those who preferred to keep the situation “fluid” in the hope of a favorable coup.
Independent experts here, however, feel the scheme–while “new and novel”–is “impossibly impractical.” They told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the expense of erecting such a fence was enormous, that the area lacked the equipment for generating enough power to keep the lines at high voltage and would not prevent rifle or mortar fire over or through the barrier at people working in the fields or at police and military patrols.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
