June 2018
what makes a wall famous?
The security fence that runs across Israel's own territory divides Israel from the West Bank (which is also not Israel's territory, hmmm?). One country views all the land as its own yet must wall off a portion to keep an "undesirable and dangerous element" out. Or is it one country has walled off a portion of disputed land which they are absorbing in a Chinese water-torture-style drip, drip, drip kind of acquisition? Let us not forget that many of the "low jobs" in Israel proper are done by Palestinians who have to cross said wall on a daily basis. The wall exists to keep people out, yet the very people who are walled off are those coming daily to work on the other side. The wall divides - very Berlin in look (from one who saw that wall in his youth), yet it isn't as internationally well-known.
The Great Wall of China is a national symbol and famous worldwide [see: Great Wall]. Made with forced labor that killed countless Chinese, the wall is now a beautiful tourist attraction and hailed for its incredible engineering. The wall on both sides is in China undisputedly. The wall's construction was a history-washed act of brutality.
The US-Mexico border wall exists in bits and pieces and is meant to keep out "undesirables and dangerous people" (much like the Bethlehem Barrier) AND people cross it regularly to carry out work legally and illegally in the USA. The USA does not, however, claim the other side of the wall as its own territory.
The famous Berlin Wall looked a lot like the Bethlehem Barrier and its Checkpoint Charlie [see: Beijing to Athens] was a very serious crossing point (much like in Israel/West Bank). However, the Berlin wall was all about keeping people IN not OUT. "Osties" did not cross the Berlin wall to work in West Berlin on a daily basis.
The aforementioned walls are well-known and bear some similarities in one way or another to the Bethlehem Barrier, yet very few people have heard about the wall that closes off part of Israel from the rest (according to Israelis) or from the nascent Palestinian State (according the the Palestinians). I was shocked at how serious and menacing the wall was and could understand why Banksy (famous graffiti artist) [see: Banksy] loved to paint there. As with all such walls, it just saddened me. How can we possibly say that on one side of a wall the world exists in one way and on the other, in a different way if we all share the same planet? We continue to do it, however, - build walls. They seem to be a peculiar human evolutionary trait.
Methinks that trait is a dead end - like the dinosaurs.