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“fence” on Northern Border of Palestine is Unique Barricade

May 18, 1938
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The barbed-wire “fence” under construction along the northern frontier of Palestine will be a barricade such as exists on no other border in the world, not even the most troubled.

The “fence” is actually an entanglement of the most substantial and permanent wartime type, over six feet high and six feet deep, strung on stakes set in concrete. There are 200 yards of wire coiled in an impenetrable tangle in every yard of length of the barricade. The two stretches, totalling 50 miles, now being built, from the new Jewish colony of Hanita to a point on the border near Hayelet Hashahar, and from Shaar Hagolan to the River Jordan, will therefore contain 10,000 miles of wire. At several points it will be strongly electrify.

The effectiveness of this barrier against terrorists seeking to cross into Palestine from Syria was demonstrated by a test conducted by a British army sapper trained in piercing barbed-wire entanglements. It took the soldier, equipped with the proper implements, two hours to cut his way through the barricade which was not electrified.

The barricade follows the line of the strategic military road recently built along the northern frontier of the Holy Land, between the road and the boundary.

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