Experiencing the Holy Land: Wall of Separation 101

We had a special fieldtrip about the Separation Wall. The first thing to know is that it isn’t like the Great Wall of China that goes on for miles and miles. Most of it is actually just barbed-wire fence with a 50-yard boundary of sand to show if anyone crossed over. The places where there are walls are through the cities where there’s no room to have a 50-yard border. The controversy of the wall is that the Israeli’s didn’t put the wall right on the border between the West Bank and Israel, which is what they’re protecting themselves from. Instead, they put the wall between the Israeli’s and Palestinians. (Palestinians are Arabs that live in Israel) On top of that, Israel put some of the Palestinian land on their side to include some Israeli settlements on the outskirts of Jerusalem. The Israeli’s claim they had to do it for security. Because of the separation wall, there are farmers who can’t get to land, people that couldn’t get to their jobs (the Jerusalem center had to find a new kitchen staff because of it) and there were even lots of deaths just a couple blocks away from the Jerusalem center because half the city got separated from all the hospitals, so they couldn’t treat the sick or injured. The separation wall is a huge problem. Palestinians have a very hard time getting around. Unless they have the correct documentation, they aren’t permitted to go through the checkpoints to get to the other side. There are some places where people can’t go anywhere. People who live in the Gaza strip will never be able to get out. Our tour guide said that the only solution to make peace and over come the conflict is the 2-state solution. But there are no steps being taken towards that currently.