The Wall

I'll admit it: before taking this class, I had only the vaguest conception of the "security fence" (otherwise advertised as the "Terror Prevention Fence") that has bulldozed its way through the West Bank. I heard it mentioned in passing on the news, but I had no idea of its scale and the impact it would have on the Palestinian territory it dissected.

I went in search of some in-depth information at typical American news sites like msnbc, cnn, and fox, but uncovered few references and no video material on the subject. I headed over to youtube, where I located a large number of independent short films critiquing the construction of the wall. If anyone has 25 minutes to spare, I would encourage them to watch "The Dividing Wall" by Journeyman Pictures, an independent British distributor of documentaries and news footage. A few interesting moments in the film relating to place/spacings:

• The Israeli government has placed the charred remnants of a bus ruined in a terrorist attack right next to a section of the wall. By moving the bus to this spot, they are emphasizing (in a visually shocking way) the link between this wall and civilian security: a permanent physical reminder that this is all that separates us from the terrorists who wish to penetrate our territory and kill our people.
• The personal stories documented in the film betray the arbitrariness of the wall's route and the negative effect its course has had on the Palestinian population. The wall cuts through an old woman's garden, harming the ecology of the area and forcing her to live on food donations. It separates one business owner from the nursery he operates and relies on for income. It physically (and hence socially) isolates one family's home from the rest of their village, holding them prisoner between the towering wall on one side and the security fence that surrounds a nearby Jewish settlement. All this shows the financial, social, and emotional toll of dividing the Palestinian landscape.
  
• At the conclusion of the film, one Palestinian says that "the time of walls has long gone" and that "they should build relationships and bridges to enhance co-operation and love among people instead of building a wall". In theory, I agree that the era of building walls should be over, but I wonder if that is the modern reality. The idea of physical barriers seems to still be current in American politics (e.g. blocking off the border with Mexico). Virtual barriers have become trendy in certain totalitarian regimes (e.g. China denying their citizens access to blogging sites where they might connect and communicate with the rest of the world). Bureaucratic barriers make it increasingly difficult to get visas to many countries, while some countries discourage the presence of foreigners through their legal codes (e.g. Turkmenistan refusing to allow foreigners to own property).
  

I also found this interesting news piece from English-language al-Jazeera:



This story talks about a Palestinian organization called "Peace and Freedom Youth Forum" that has teamed up with a Dutch advertising group to create the "Send a Message" site. Here, for the price of 30 euros, anyone in the world can have a message graffiti'd onto an area of the security wall. The message can be one of love, humor, hope, solidarity -- but it may not contain any offensive remarks or incitement of hatred. The effort is described by the members of the Youth Forum as an alternative (i.e. non-violent) form of resistance against the wall and the occupation in general. Their goal is to take this physical barrier, originally intended to keep people apart, and use it as a way to connect Palestinians and people across the globe. The majority of the proceeds go to communities whose agricultural and commercial activity has been damaged by the construction of the wall.

I have not heard anything about this project in the Western media. I suppose you could say it doesn't fit into the typical narrative on Palestine, which usually depicts Palestinians as a pulsating, screaming, flag-waving mob with a penchant for suicide bombings. Pacifism has never been associated with Palestine, but this story and even the story above prove that at least some Palestinians yearn for peaceful and productive ways to solve their problems. I would say that this story not only provides a counter-narrative, but it also plays effectively on the historical memory of Western audiences by using common imagery to unite two places separated by time and space. Seeing this huge graffiti-covered wall splitting a once-united territory, I could not help but think of the Berlin Wall and all of its troubling connotations (e.g. artificial/arbitrary division, brutal enforcement of separation/containment, inequality of living conditions)...although specific political circumstances may vary, the nature and aftereffects of "wall-building" seem unfortunately universal.