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There are no few obstacles to peace in the area known to some as ‘Israel’ and to others as ‘Palestine.’ Not the least of which is an imposing concrete wall some twenty-six feet high snaking its way through a plethora of Palestinian economic centers, effectively choking off the possibility of commerce and even equally dividing Palestinian neighborhoods that once existed side-by-side.
While the Israeli government claims the wall is being built as a means of security – keeping Palestinian terrorists out of Israeli population centers – the facts tell a much different story. For instance, did you know that there are as many Palestinians (as well as Jews!) living ‘inside’ the wall as ‘outside’? That’s a strange fact for something built in the name of ‘security’ and a major counter to the claim of what the wall is supposedly about. One would expect, in the name of security, to see a clean break between Jewish and Palestinian communities – but that is simply not the case at all.
So if the wall is not for security, what IS it for?
Imagine if you are a farmer and reside just minutes from your field. But then an occupying force builds a wall through your property, forcing you to travel several miles to arrive at what used to be just fifteen minutes away. Imagine that to arrive at those same fields you once accessed within minutes, you must now rise at 4am to tend to your crops by 7am?
On top of that, now you must pass through several check-points along the way subjecting you to strip searches, a litany of questions and long periods of simply waiting for permission to pass. All around you are towers with armed guards watching your every move – making you feel as if you’re imprisoned on your own land. There are gates through which you must pass; security roads on which you must travel and electronic fences removing any thought of attempting to by-pass any of the arduous travel route that has now been constructed.
There is no end in sight to such a wall… and you are powerless to do anything about it.
What would you do? Would you give up? Would you quit? Move? Revolt? What options would you consider… what options would you NOT consider?!
When I was younger I remember the call of Ronald Regan to tear down the Berlin wall – a wall that separated families and stood as an object-lesson of tyranny and injustice. I remember the day it fell, the pounding sledgehammers, the first hole penetrating the wall, the people dancing as they passed back-and-forth from one side to the other. I remember feeling an overwhelming joy at seeing family members embracing after years of separation. And I remember thinking “Never again will such a wall be built. We are entering a new age of consciousness and understanding. Humanity is becoming one.”
But now there is another wall – a wall that has been built to imprison a proud people who are slowly but surely being choked out of their livelihood, their land, their heritage. And unlike the Berlin Wall, this wall is five times longer and in places twice as high. And the removal of this wall seems even more unlikely than the removal of the one in Berlin. And it has unashamedly been built (and continues to be built) as the world looks on, seemingly content to pass resolutions against such actions but compelled neither to intervene economically with sanctions against Israel nor to mount an international protest to stop such injustice.
To the Israeli government, the wall is unashamedly promoted as a ‘security barrier.’ To the Palestinians – who know better because it has nothing to do with security and everything to do with an economic stranglehold – it is simply the ‘Wall of Apartheid.’ It is the wall of separation.
As long as this wall continues to stand, and continues to be built to divide Palestinian lands and population centers, the hope for peace continues to be negligible.
2 comments to “Israel Pt 5: Walls To Peace”
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My heart is asking, “…..so what’s the answer?”
May I know my part in healing the damage done by this atrocity of injustice…!