Wednesday, December 17, 2008

I just came back from another PELS session. Today we watched videos from different perspectives about the conflict, particularly the SEPARATION WALL. My favorite part of the whole session was in the second film we watched, made by the Israeli government to inform the international public about why the WALL was necessary, when the narrator stated, "It's not a wall; it's a fence." Yes. Most fences I've seen are 26 feet high, over a hundred miles long, and made of concrete.
You want to argue about the legitimacy of the wall's construction? That's fine, we can talk about suicide bombers, checkpoints, death tolls on both sides, and the need for security. We can discuss politely whether this wall really protects Israel, or whether it separates the Palestinians and confiscates a hundred extra meters of their land. We can talk about the word apartheid, whether it really just means "separation" or whether it means "South Africa/Racism/Oppressive Laws/Poverty/Death." These are all debatable topics. It's obvious where I currently stand, but we can have a discourse about it. Maybe you'll change my mind. But please, at least call it what it is. This is a wall. Some parts of it may actually be chain link, but this is no fence. If you start out with one lie, how can I listen to the rest of what you have to say?

1 comment:

some one said...

all in all it's just another brick in the wall.