Today we hiked around the peripheries of the separation wall, which divides the land between that inhabited by the Jews and the Palestinians. We were in Jerusalem, which has a very hard to determine line between Jewish and Arab neighborhoods. The hike was led by Yoron Yovadia, some random guy from Amnon’s platoon in the army, who is currently a PHD candidate in Islamic studies and a tour guide for the Jerusalem area. Repeatedly he asked us the question of where the wall should be, and repeatedly the answer was “it is complicated” (in other words there are no good locations to construct the wall). The way Jerusalem is set up there is a layer of Israeli homes surrounded by a ring of Arab homes then another layer of Israeli homes. This situation makes separation realistically an impossible goal.
Israel is criticized by the fact that the wall is very inconvenient to Arabs but not necessarily Jews. In addition Arabs claim that it is degrading to their human rights. I will respond that: as a result of this wall and its checkpoints in the general area, terrorism decreased during the second Intifada. There have been only seven terrorist attacks in the past five years all of which were done by militants who were based on the Israeli side of the wall. The wall stops terrorists from crossing over. Israel did not build this wall for the sole reason of persecuting Arabs, but rather for the security and protection of its citizens.
Another criticism is that life on the Arab side of the wall is secluded and that their movement is restricted. We took our bus past the checkpoint into a suburb of Ramallah, which is under the Palestinian Authority. There was not much to see; we took a lap around the rotary and re-entered the Israeli side, which proved that although the wall may cause inconveniences it is still possible to go through it. Palestinians still have the right to travel freely and Israel is not abusing them.