The Other Wall

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July 1, Jerusalem District (Birthright)

We met the Israeli soldiers at our Jerusalem hotel. They are three guys and five girls, all actively serving in various units (such as anti-terror). An essential component of the Birthright program, they would be joining our group for five days. Obviously a coveted assignment, the young uniformed men and women hold a monopoly on the attention of the equally young and spellbound Americans.

After a new round of icebreakers, together we go to “hike the Sataf, an ancient village.” An ancient Palestinian village that ceased to exist in 1948, actually. But Jeremy’s point is to indicate that the area has been settled for a long time, so I only mention it to a few of the students in passing. As we walk, I connect a bit more with the soldiers, practicing my Hebrew. Ofir, Yarden and Itamar in particular. In my last Birthright trip, I was 19 and the soldiers intimated me. They felt like supermen. I wondered, “Could I do what they do? Do I have that kind of courage?” This time I saw them as individuals, molded into sabra characters because of their jobs but still immature, trying to figure their lives out. So squad leader Itamar rolled his eyes at some of Jeremy’s commands and Yarden told me she voted for Meretz because they’re the only party left “that still cares for social issues.”

Our next stop is near Gilo, a Jewish settlement just over the Green Line, a southern suburb to Jerusalem. Jeremy leads us off the road onto a dirt path overlooking a valley and a city beyond it. The valley is planted with olive trees. To our right, the deep valley curves away from us, separating two more communities on opposing hills. A fortified road plies the space between. The concrete fortifications are on the left side of the road. Behind us lies Gilo. Because of Jeremy’s usual (and mildly irritating) dramatic flair, no one quite understands what we’re doing here.

Jeremy now explains. The city over the valley is Bethlehem. The road is Israeli Route 1, cutting between Palestinian Beit Jala and Jewish settlement Har Gilo. The fortifications are to protect drivers from Palestinian sniper fire. During the Intifada, snipers also shot at the Gilo settlements behind us. Israeli artillery responded by firing across the valley into Bethlehem and Beit Jala. You can still see some damaged buildings. So these are the front lines, I think.

Jeremy points out the wall hugging Bethlehem. “Those fields in the valley,” he says, “are Palestinian fields. Because of the Wall, they have to go all the way around to the checkpoint, over there.” One of the Israeli soldiers lived in one of the houses facing Bethlehem during the Intifada. People lived in fear, she explains, while still going about their lives. “Why would you live here?” one of the girls asked. Jeremy responds, “It’s very cheap and it’s close to Jerusalem. And people don’t always have the financial choice to move.”

Our last stop is the major machsom, or checkpoint, for entry into Bethlehem. This is as close as we will bring them to the other side. We stand on the Israeli side of the wall while Jeremy talks, showing pictures of Palestinian graffiti and a graph marking the decline in terror attacks after the Wall was built. Palestinians disappear into the checkpoint compound beside us, returning from a day’s work. I’m happy the topic is being discussed and my curiosity is piqued. I heard that Bansky, a famous British graffiti artist, had put up some works on the other side. I need to see it. An Israeli police van pulls up and we are ushered out of the area.

July 11, Bethlehem

It’s physically ugly. The solid concrete wall stands 7 or 8 meters high, completely obstructing my view of the other side. A barbed wire fence lines the top, facing inward. It’s eerily quiet - no wind, no honking horns, no yelling voices. There are no visible soldiers either. The wall follows a snake’s path, dipping out to surround some structures but never straying farther than a few meters from them. Holy Rachel’s Tomb is just on the other side. Guard towers jut out every few hundred meters. I don’t find Bansky’s work but I do find the Wall Lounge’s menu. “It’s IN the city”, I say to no one in particular, the wall clearly delineating the end of the Palestinian world, as if the city planners built a city to the very edge of the Earth. To my surprise, I’m feeling that the oft-used prison analogy actually holds some emotional resonance at the moment. I spot a sun-weathered man reclining lazily on the ground just around the wall’s bend. His face portrays an absent mind; and there is something menacing about that. It’s enough for me to lose my nerve for a moment and I instinctively retreat a few steps.

I supported the building of the Wall, the Fence, the Security Barrier, whatever, when I was in high school. With the intifada still smoldering, the first ideas of building a wall between us and them began to sprout in the early 2000s. A highschool teacher of mine planted the seed in my mind. After a terrorist attack, Israel would launch violent reprisal raids against the Palestinian militias, inevitably killing civilians as well. I was uncomfortable with that. I blamed the Palestinian culture of hate for the attacks and I blamed them for the failure of Oslo. I thought, “if they don’t want to talk peace, we’ll put up a fucking wall. They can do what they want on their side of it. At least there won’t be suicide bombers. And if they shoot over it, we’ll bomb the shit out of them.“ Problem solved.

The idea began to unravel for me when I got to university:

“Apartheid Wall!” Well, no it’s actually mostly a fence and it’s not apartheid. It’s, well it’s an occupation.

“Land grab!” Well, no, it’s a temporary structure to be adjusted to fit a final peace agreement. But it sure did cost a lot to build. And it is straying rather far from the Green Line… And the Israeli settlements, I haven’t really looked into where those are in relation to Palestinian lands. And Jerusalem, what are they going to do about that?

On a hill overlooking the city I learn that this year the Wall quietly folded Arab East Jerusalem and the settlement Ma’ale Adumim (basically a Jewish Jerusalem suburb in the West Bank) onto the Israeli side. The last suicide bombing was in 2008. Israelis I talked to credit the Wall for the decline in terror attacks. Palestinians credit the crushing Israeli invasions and their own exhaustion.

Walking down the quiet street under Bethlehem’s wall, I just feel forlorn permanent separation.

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Comments

[Rafi]

Gilo
Hey Ash, So you went to the house I was born in, in Gilo. I wonder if the bullet holes are still in the kitchen walls from the intifada. If you have any pics, please send me them. I hope you are having an amazing time working at Haaretz! Raf