Athens for Justice in Palestine’s mock wall demonstration at Tate Plaza was intended to inform the University community about the impact the wall has on the people living in the Palestinian territories.
Although Sam Steinberg tried to convince you in his Wednesday column, “Security barrier is Israel’s right,” that the barrier is merely a small fence, he failed to mention that it towers more than 26 feet high – twice the height of the Berlin Wall – and that it is not yet complete. It’s path is ever-changing as the Israeli government decides how much Palestinian territory it should annex.
Steinberg also failed to recognize Bethlehem, Qalqiliya, Tulkerem and Jerusalem – cities in which neighborhoods have been completely cut off by this wall.
He also failed to recognize the barrier’s buffer zone, which stretches between 100 and 330 feet out from the wall in certain locations, and which has led to large-scale demolitions and expulsions of nearby residents. And all of this is being built on Palestinian land, not inside the borders formally recognized by the U.N. in 1967.
The wall is isolating Palestinians completely from their schools, workplaces, land, medical facilities and each other.
The completion of the wall around Jerusalem will isolate Palestinians there from the rest of the West Bank, creating ghettos where people live under the harshest conditions.
What many Americans don’t know is that Israel dictates Palestinians’ everyday lives. Palestinians must get special permission to travel between cities or to holy sites, to farm their land and to build houses on their property.
When they are allowed to travel, they are restricted to roads that cross mountainous terrains and humiliating road blocks that can make a trip that should take a few minutes take hours. And Palestinians are forbidden from travelling on many highways.
This can make it difficult for Palestinian teachers and students to make it to school, and sometimes entire semesters are cancelled.
Recognizing this isn’t anti-Semitism as Steinberg may lead you to believe.
There are many Jewish and Israeli organizations (Gush Shalom, B’Tselem, Jews for a Just Peace,
Not in my Name and others) that believe the Israeli occupation is an obstacle to peace.
The occupation is the reason Palestinians are resisting Israeli military rule, violently and non-violently (we don’t hear as much about these efforts in the media).
Violence is wrong no matter who is the victimizer, and although Israel has the right to defend itself from attackers within Palestinian territories, the wall isn’t the solution.
Collectively punishing the Palestinians is turning many desperate youths toward violence as a solution rather than toward negotiating.
The idea of separation implies disengagement from cooperation and encourages each party to seek solutions without consideration for one another, resulting in no peace for either side.
The mock wall demonstration attempted to expose the University to the racist, oppressive and illegal actions the Israeli government and military practice daily.
The occupation of Palestine has become a harsh symbol of Israel and its main supporter, the United States, not Judaism. We cannot be intimidated into silence by those who pull out the anti-Semitism card every time someone attempts to reveal the true consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian areas.
Sure, the Holocaust was horrible, as Mr. Steinberg pointed out yesterday. But the Israeli Wall also is horrible.
And unlike the Holocaust, it’s affecting people in 2005.
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