Israel’s wall of hate

by Editor · Published September 10, 2003 · Updated March 6, 2012

When in 1961 the communist government of East Germany built a wall to divide the city of Berlin, the international outcry was loud and sustained. The Berlin wall became a potent icon of the cold war, and its fall in 1989 a symbol of an end to tyranny behind the Iron Curtain.

Now Israel has built a wall around the areas falling under the Palestinian Authority�an artificial territorial construct that has the spotted-dog appearance of the old South African bantustan of Bophuthatswana.

Unlike the partition of Berlin, the Holy Land wall has invoked only muted criticism in the Western world. The statement by ten Christian leaders in Jerusalem, including four Catholics, and a supporting letter to US President George W Bush by American religious superiors condemning the wall, help to illuminate a grave inequity internationally.

As we report this week, the Christian leaders point out that the wall deprives Palestinians of land, subsistence, statehood and family life, with attendant negative psychological effects on their lives. The Christian leaders accurately warn that the wall “constitutes a grave obstacle” to peace in the Middle East.

The Israeli government says it built the wall to keep out suicide bombers. If this was indeed so, then the wall has already proved to be ineffective�the deplorable terror attacks on Israeli civilians have continued, despite the wall.

Moreover, Israel�s justification is disingenuous�three times as many Palestinians are killed by Israeli government forces as Israelis are by Palestinian terror groups.

Whatever the real reasons behind the wall (which at a height of 8m is not a “fence”, as some media have described it), its effect is impoverishing and dehumanising to Palestinians, who are restricted in their free movement even within Palestinian territories.

To them, the wall will become a potent symbol of oppression, a sign that Israel precludes the notion of peaceful coexistence. It is difficult to see how the wall will not swell support for Hamas�a terrorist organisation that deserves no sympathy�and undermine the position of moderate Palestinians who are inclined to negotiate a peaceful settlement.

Apart from the humanitarian distress the wall perpetuates, it also feeds terror organisations that are as much an obstacle to a peaceful solution as is the government of Israel�s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Crucially, the international community, and specifically the United States, has failed to exhibit the political will, focus and flexibility to enforce a working peace in the Holy Land.

Compelling Israel to dismantle the wall would be a good start. Providing aid to feed, uplift and develop the Palestinian territories�perhaps through the United Nations or other non-partisan agencies�would at least partly erode support for Hamas.

The road to peace in the Holy Land inevitably will be long. For now, the wall helps obstruct access to that road.