On Walls and Segregation

You know, Jerusalem wasn't always this racially segregated. It is within memory that the school in the picture- which is kitty corner to our grocery store- was full of Arab Christians, Jews and a few Arab Muslims and Armenians. The Terra Sancta was one of the best schools in the city. It was run by the Franciscans, which is funny because most of the students, including the Christians, weren't Catholics. The racial segregation only really started in earnest after '48 and became extreme with the building of the wall within the last decade.

I thought you would like to know what my friends' responses were to my story of going through the check point coming back from Ramallah. Besides being unsafe these days, it has been forbidden for Israelis to go into Ramallah since the second infatada, so many were curious about the checkpoint.

My officemate is the only Israeli I feel comfortable with not holding back and saying what I really think. We often disagree, in the politest academic manner, but our conversations give me insight into the thinking of the relatively secular right wing. My officemate seems to be stuck on recent historical record and has a complete lack of trust for the Palestinians. It bothers the crap out of him that there is a mosque on top of the holy temple. And when Jordan had control, no Jew could pray at the Western Wall, and yet when the Jews have control, the Muslims get to go pray and yet they still throw rocks and cause a regular stink. It worries him and dismays him when he hears about misinformation and untrue history teaching in the Muslim community. He says the wall is bad and a humanitarian crisis, but if it is saving lives, it is a necessary evil.

We argued for a while- me upholding my idealism. My big coup was when I managed to get him to admit that the mosque on top of the temple isn't so bad; if Mohammed visited in his dream, he could see how it is an important place for Muslims. What really bothers him is that the Islamic community doesn't recognize it as an important site for Jews and give them according freedom to pray and do their thing on the Temple Mount.

All right, so that was one extreme. Many of my labmates are seriously secular left wingers. One of them loathes all religion since he has seen it bring out the worst in people, and hates it with a passion that fundamentalists would envy. There was a lot of tisk-tisking and shaking heads when I described my experience to them. And the general feeling was that the wall had to go as soon as possible- they just needed to find a way without starting complete chaos.

One labmate had an insight on the flippant guard. He said that these guards are often eighteen or nineteen years old, not the highest pick on the army duty assignments (i.e. not the smartest), and are bored out of their minds from sitting at a checkpoint all day. They are given power without the life experience to wield it with the right attitude. He stated that this, of course, didn't justify her behavior. Some labmates suggested that I make a formal complaint with the unstated notion that my foreigner's voice would be louder than an Palestinian one. I didn't, when I considered my visa is up for renewal this week, and that what am I going to do, complain that a guard was a bitch?

Since I come from a peace loving country with lots of space, I have the freedom to be an idealist. There is no question, the wall has to go. It is a moral necessity. It is the responsibility of the Jewish and Muslim leaders to constantly fight to find a way to bring it down, and to not do so is morally repugnant and a disservice to both their peoples.