The wall

I had read about it. I had seen it in pictures and news reels. With my finger I had traced its line along the map. But nothing can prepare you for the sheer brutality of the wall. It divides communities, it splits up families, it separates farmers from their crops and in its path houses were demolished. 

The wall surrounds the West Bank from the Jordan Rover in the north to the Dead Sea in the south. It does not follow the Green Line, established in the 1967 by the international community, but snakes through Palestinian land annexing land to the west and surrounding communities. The Bedouin village of Jamal Al-Baba is almost surrounded by the wall. 

As a demonstration of the number of twists and turns in the wall, the Green Line is 360 kilometre long but the wall is 720 kilometres.


According to the Israeli Government the wall is necessary to protect “vulnerable settlers” from “hostile” Palestinians. While I’m certain Palestinians are hostile towards the settlers - why wouldn’t they be? The settlers have occupied land in the West Bank against all international law and UN resolutions - I wonder if the real reason for building the wall is more sinister. 

The Israelis need the Palestinians - certainly as labour but more importantly as an enemy. Israel seeks to present itself on the international stage as a plucky small country defending itself against hostile neighbours. Through this method they try to shore up international support both political and military. 

The wall is a key part of this international image. Israel needs it. 






More information here: https://electronicintifada.net/content/it-fence-it-wall-no-its-separation-barrier/4715
                                                                                                                                                        Martin




Comments

  1. Dr David Kirby11 May 2019 at 09:53

    "To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time."

    —from The Negro in American Culture by James Baldwin. The Separation Wall is the product of a different racism, but has the same result, and through the human capacity of emotional mimesis, produces the angry Palestinian whose existence supposedly formed the justification for its construction.

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