Israel-Palestine: The Separation Wall
In July 2004, the International Court of Justice gave its advisory opinion on Israel’s separation wall as such “by 14 votes to one: the construction of the wall being built by Israel, the occupying power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and it’s associated regime, are contrary to international law”. Israel responded that the ruling was illegitimate as it considers the issue one of internal politics and therefore outside the jurisdiction of the court.
The wall is widely supported by Israelis, who believe it has helped to curb the flow of suicide bombers. Yet it also pushes the hopeless to do the unthinkable as they search for means to fight the 38 year occupation, the only thing that most Palestinians have ever known. The wall will further isolate Palestinians, trapping West Bank residents between two borders controlled by Israel while Gazans remains unable even to use their ports or repair their airport.
The route it takes eats well into the West Bank, only following the internationally agreed Green Line Border for some 20% of its length. Through it’s various detours it cuts communities in half, splits families, separates workers from their employment and farmers from their crops. Bethlehem is now almost completely isolated through a combination of walls and restricted road access. Although Israel insists that the wall is temporary, it is rapidly becoming a de facto border, leaving large chunks of the West Bank, on top of the settlements that are being continuously built, in Israeli hands.
The wall will only keep the peacemakers, of which there are plenty on both sides, apart and fuel fear and paranoia with ignorance. Jews and Palestinians live on top of each other, sometimes in their memories, sometimes literally, as if two alternative realities exist in the same place with each side only able to recognise the other’s existence through its own pain. So their children grow up shielded from each other, and the voices of their hurt parents recycle into their consciousness.
The wall is widely supported by Israelis, who believe it has helped to curb the flow of suicide bombers. Yet it also pushes the hopeless to do the unthinkable as they search for means to fight the 38 year occupation, the only thing that most Palestinians have ever known. The wall will further isolate Palestinians, trapping West Bank residents between two borders controlled by Israel while Gazans remains unable even to use their ports or repair their airport.
The route it takes eats well into the West Bank, only following the internationally agreed Green Line Border for some 20% of its length. Through it’s various detours it cuts communities in half, splits families, separates workers from their employment and farmers from their crops. Bethlehem is now almost completely isolated through a combination of walls and restricted road access. Although Israel insists that the wall is temporary, it is rapidly becoming a de facto border, leaving large chunks of the West Bank, on top of the settlements that are being continuously built, in Israeli hands.
The wall will only keep the peacemakers, of which there are plenty on both sides, apart and fuel fear and paranoia with ignorance. Jews and Palestinians live on top of each other, sometimes in their memories, sometimes literally, as if two alternative realities exist in the same place with each side only able to recognise the other’s existence through its own pain. So their children grow up shielded from each other, and the voices of their hurt parents recycle into their consciousness.
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