“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.”
Detail #2, The Separation Wall, Seen from Bloomfield Gardens, Jerusalem 2011
© Leslie Hossack
The Israeli Separation Wall, barely visible in this photograph, runs along the top of the distant ridge. For the entire length of the barrier, there are observation posts, sensing devices, and gateways controlled by Israeli soldiers.
Passage through these gateways is particularly difficult for Palestinians living in the West Bank, even if they have the required permits. The barrier restricts access to their own fields and orchards and wells, to health care and education, to jobs, and to holy sites in Jerusalem. Since construction of the barrier started in 2002, Palestinians have taken their concerns to the Israeli courts numerous times, but with mixed results.
The Israeli separation fence, or the apartheid wall as Palestinians prefer to call it, brings to mind a passage from Robert Frost’s poem Mending Wall.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s security barrier was a violation of international humanitarian law. The Court called for the barrier to be removed, for Arab residents to be compensated, and for other nations to take action to obtain Israel’s compliance with the Fourth Geneva Convention. Immediately, the United Nations General Assembly voted 150-6 to condemn Israel and demand removal of the barrier. Israel has not taken down the Separation Wall, but has continued to add to it.
HAUTE VITRINE 