Okay, so not quite a tour into the heart of the conflict, but rather a tour of the Separation Barrier in parts of East Jerusalem. This was a hard one. It was depressing. And it did not help that it was pouring with rain, windy and freezing (even by Geneva standards).
So why a barrier anyway? In 2002, the Israeli government decided to construct a Separation Barrier in the West Bank to prevent terrorists attacks on the Israeli population. In urban areas, the barrier is a row of 25-foot (or 6.7-metre) high concrete slabs. In other areas it is an electronic fence with surveillance devices and barbed wire. Most Israelis are in favour of the separation barrier because it has significantly reduced terrorist attacks.
The problem: the barrier does not stick to Israel’s internationally recognized borders (the so-called green line) nor does it stick to Israel’s own accepted borders. And that is because the barrier is also meant to protect the over 450, 000 Israelis living in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
For Palestinians living on the barrier's route, this has lead to great suffering. I was confronted with what this means in East Jerusalem. East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel in the 1967 six-day war while the rest of the West Bank remained under military occupation. Israel proclaims sovereignty over East Jerusalem but it is not internationally recognized, not even by the U.S.
The Separation Barrier takes in East Jerusalem, with its 250, 000 Palestinians (also known as Jerusalemites). Whilst most Palestinians from East Jerusalem hold Israeli residents permits, they retain strong social, economic and political ties with their families and communities in the West Bank (and vice versa). The barrier has severely disrupted these ties. I saw some areas where the barrier cut through entire villages. In other areas it separated Palestinian homes from their olive groves, taking away their land and livelihoods.
I am thrilled that Israelis feel more secure in their homes and daily lives. People do not think twice about taking a public bus. This was not the case when I was here fifteen years ago. But I saw for my own eyes the consequences of this new situation. I cannot accept that the security of Israelis comes at the cost of the rights of Palestinians to their own land, livelihoods and security. There must be another way.
58 days to go…
I remember... In Jerusalem, rain tends to fall horizontally. If the Wall isn't able to bring its direction back to normal, it's useless.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there must be a better way. After all look at history...the Berlin wall, the ghettos that existed in Eastern Europe, the Great Wall of China, etc. However, in the absence of both sides agreeing tostop murdering each other, what do you do? If any South East Asian country decided to park a warship off the coast of Sydney and send bombs over regularly to kill Sydneysiders do you think it would be wrong for Australia to setup a defence in the open ocean that is not owned by Australia? Isn't that what Israel has effectively done? Kevin
ReplyDeleteGood point, Kevin. But what if thousands of Australians had been moving to settle down in that South East Asian country, and now lived in exclusive neighbourhoods that the Australian government decided to develop (outside the international borders of Australia)? Would it still be OK to build a Protection Wall or a Separation Barrier around those settlements, cutting the original Asian inhabitants of that region from their fields, from their family, etc.? I wonder...
ReplyDeleteThe Jerusalemite (Palestinian from East Jerusalem) who showed me round East Jerusalem actually said that he was okay with the building a security wall to protect Israelis from attacks. But only on condition that it followed the green line (which is the internationally accepted border). Anything else risked violating the rights of Palestinians.
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