The things we build

I was at a book launch earlier in the week, for Arthur Neilson's In Your Eyes a Sandstorm, and of course question period focused less on the fascinating ins and outs of the book and his project of collecting Palestinian narratives, and more on "do you think we should be worried that Israel has nuclear weapons." 

Another comment (there were a lot more comments than questions, alas) was on some sociological ground of "removing threats perceived and real" with the idea that this would build trust and make peace possible. 

Then I thought, if I looked at the fences and walls and gates and doors separating Israelis from Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, I'd start to imagine things were pretty scary on the other side too. 

I mean just look at it:

Woops, I accidently put in stills from Jurassic Park instead.

Those fences are pretty high, those cement walls pretty thick, but, I guess they are keeping out the T-rex, and he's scary.

Thiiiiis is the occupation/separation infrastructure:

Gaza's "perimeter fence"

Guard tower outside of Bethlehem

Entering Bethlehem

Exiting Bethlehem 

Inside the checkpoint at Bethlehem

The wall keeping Bethlehem away from Rachel's Tomb, which is also in Bethlehem

Road gate separating settler road way from access to Palestinian village.

Woh. So if the fences in Palestine are triple layered, the cement walls higher, and the entranceways more fortified than Jurassic Park, there must be something even more frightening inside, right?

Okay, cheap shot. There are kids that are not adorable and make you take their pictures near guard towers. I bet there are even ugly kids. That roar. And their parents. I bet they get protective. 

But even the tourists at Jurassic Park could look in and see the terror, the horror and the awesomeness of those dinos. And I guess at the end those poor scientists and the theme-park grandpa truly did gain some respect for the beings that had been caged up. 

So, what will be the ending of Palestine's wall? Well, in the words of the horn-rim glasses uber chic Dr Malcolm Gladwell: 

The kind of control you're attempting is not possible. If there's one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories. It crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously, but - well, there it is.









As a bit of an apropos afterthought, Ma'an News Agency published some images from Israel's latest wall-building exercise on their northern border (disputed), where the latest in 7-foot concrete architecture is being explored:

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=481204