The Wall. What does one call it? A separation barrier? An apartheid wall?
There are some who don’t like the word apartheid, while even the Archbishop Desmond Tutu has compared what is happening in the Middle East to what happened in South Africa:
“In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were Jewish people. They almost instinctively had to be on the side of the disenfranchised, of the voiceless ones, fighting injustice, oppression and evil. I have continued to feel strongly with the Jews. I am a patron of a Holocaust Center in South Africa. I believe Israel has a right to secure borders.
What is not so understandable, not justified, is what it did to another people to guarantee its existence. I’ve been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about. My heart aches. I say, Why are our memories so short?”
What is becoming more and more clear is that this separation barrier is not a “security” barrier. As our bus has traveled through many checkpoints throughout the West Bank, there have been many times when we have been stuck at checkpoints simply because the soldiers didn’t want to let anyone through. They weren’t doing anything, just sitting around, talking, etc. When I go through the Bethlehem checkpoint, I don’t even have to open my passport as long as they see the United States of America on the front of it. People walk through holes and certain sections of the Wall everyday – if a suicide bomber wants to get into Israel, the Wall is not going to stop him/her – there are many ways to get around the Wall. It is not about security, but about making life difficult for Palestinians.
The Wall completely surrounds some cities in the West Bank, like Qalqilyah, and it is getting close to enveloping Bethlehem and Beit Sahour as well. It is encroaching upon the land surrounding villages like Bil’in, and creating a network of roads, fences, walls, trenches and barriers that cut through olive groves and Palestinian land.
I don’t know exactly what to call it. Maybe apartheid wall isn’t the best terminology, but it is not a “security” wall. From now on, I will refer to it as “the Wall.” And while I don’t know all that there is to know about it, I do know that it is wrong. And I know that I am in good company.
