12 Devil’s AllianceDr Ricard sat pensively in the office of the Israeli Minister for Agriculture. She had spent two weeks inspecting the new Palestinian border, the soil and its general ambient environment.
The enquiry from the Israeli government was a simple one: to develop a hundred-metre wide strip of dense foliage the length and breadth of the border - something that was impenetrable or at least extremely difficult to breach without the use of heavy machinery.
The international ban on land mines had put their use out of the question because it would cause a massive PR disaster. Even razor wire or harmless fencing conveyed the wrong kind of image when conciliation was the aim, if not the rule, of the game. They wanted something more photogenic - natural defences that provided no oppor
