Netanyahu, Tear Down This Wall

By Timothy Hayes on November 22, 2014

With the recent commemoration of the falling of the Berlin Wall, it’s nice to consider what a wonderful world we live in. Communist Russia has fallen. Al Qaeda has been decapitated. Dictators have been deposed in the recent Arab Spring. ISIS is taking over. Israel’s oppressing Palestine. There’s a war in Ukraine. Yep. Everything is peachy.

Sarcasm aside, it’s pretty easy to see that the world’s in a mess. If you haven’t noticed in the news, Israel’s at the center of a lot of controversy. With a recent massive military intervention into the West Bank and Gaza Strip this summer in an attempt to root out Hezbollah, Israel has lost major support from much of the world community. Even the US, Israel’s longtime ally, has called the attack an act of domestic terrorism.

For as long as anyone can remember, there seems to always have been a conflict in Israel, but why? To understand Israel’s troubles, one must

look at its formation. The country came about after the League of Nations carved up the Ottoman Empire post-World War I. This formerly strong empire was divided into regions that did not reflect ethnic, religious, or cultural similarities for control by European powers. You’ve probably heard something like this in high school history class, but the situation is more complicated than that.

A guard tower along the “Seperation Fence”

Since antiquity, Jews have inhabited the region on the coast of the eastern Mediterranean Sea now known as Palestine. The region has been the center of war and conflict for ages due to its crucial location at the edge of two continents and on the coast of a major sea route as well as having large mineral reserves and land suitable for cultivation. This land was settled by Abraham, father of the Jewish faith. Eventually, the Jews relocated to Egypt, though archaeologists dispute the cause. The Jews returned to Palestine, or as they called it, Judah, and reconquered the land now inhabited by the Canaanites. Again and again, the Kingdom of Judah switched between being a regional superpower and the local underdog, with the Jews being expelled and returning several times. Final defeat was suffered at the hands of the Roman Empire.

Even before the Jews were invaded and forcibly expelled by the Romans, Jews had been moving throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East. By now, the Jews were well established, but anti-Jewish sentiment from Christians in Europe and Arabs in the Middle East pushed them out over the centuries. Slowly, groups of Jews began reestablishing their lives in Palestine. This trend continued, eventually leading to a movement known as Zionism, whose stated goals included making Palestine a Jewish homeland. However, Muslims had been living there for centuries and some believed that Mohammed ascended to Heaven there. Meanwhile, the Christians laid claim to the Palestine as well because it was the birthplace of Jesus. On top of all that, all three religions claim to be worshipping the same god, but each lays claim to being the true way.

In the years leading up to WWII, a large number of Jews fled to the Palestine, most fleeing from places like Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Austria, leading to a sudden up-swing in Jewish population and creating a Jewish majority in some regions of Palestine. After WWII, thousands more Jews arrived, having escaped the horror of the Holocaust and seeking a place far away from the memories of such hate. However, the Muslims, who had been living in the region for centuries, were less than happy with a group of foreigners coming in and settling on land that was seen as belonging to them. In Europe and America, however, sympathy for the Jewish cause was at an all-time high and the newly formed UN wanted to provide a safe haven for Jews. Seeking to quell disputes about Palestine and prevent a conflict, the UN created a divided Palestinian state along largely religious boundaries. This result was favored by the Jews but not the Muslims. Violence broke out, leading to an all-out civil war. The Jews began to gain the upper hand, but then a coalition of Arab Muslim countries surrounding Palestine invaded as well. However, the Jews were able to successfully win the war and declared the independent state of Israel. The Truman Administration immediately recognized the new Jewish state and, soon after, most of the world recognized the new state as legitimate. A small fraction of the globe does not recognize Israel, most having largely Muslim populations and many surrounding Israel.

Throughout the existence of the nation of Israel, wars have been a part of its existence. The nation has taken to being in a constant state of war

The “Wall of Apartheid” running around Arab regions of the West Bank

,with mandatory conscription for all citizens, male and female. There are dozens of active military sites across the country, mostly bordering two areas that Israel does not govern, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. On maps made in the US or Israel, these are part of the nation and not disputed, but in other countries like Iran, maps may show dotted lines around some of these to show the occupation by Israel. Currently, despite Israel being recognized as an independent nation, the International Court of Law ruled that the West Bank and Gaza are not Israeli sovereign territory but rather occupied land belonging to Arab Palestine. The land has been occupied since the 1967 Six-days War in which Israel aggressively and without provocation took over these regions and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt.

Since Israel’s invasion of the Arab Palestine, the Arabs have protested this occupation. The Israeli government has responded to protests with riot police and even military force. Most Arabs in Israel, Arab Palestine, and the rest of the Middle East have responded non-violently, and wars and terrorism represent only a small fraction of the Arabs who wish to have a free Arab Palestine again. The majority are content to protest and take civil action. However, you may have heard of a group called Hezbollah.

Hezbollah means Party of Allah and is technically a political party. They hold seats in the Lebanese parliament and are recognized as a legitimate party. Still, there are those among them that the general media loves to report about, largely because they are terrorists. The people do not see themselves as terrorists, though, only as freedom fighters looking to liberate their homeland. However, they have kidnapped civilians, bombed residential and business regions of cities throughout Israel and, as the media loves to report, fired rockets at military targets from within the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Israel’s response has been extremely violent, launching attack after attack at areas suspected of supported or sheltering Hezbollah fighters. These have killed civilians and even violated Lebanon’s sovereignty with the 2006 and 2008 Israeli-Lebanese Wars. On top of that, Israel has restricted movement for Arabs and Muslims in Israel in an attempt to stop the movement of fighters and supplies. They have built walls around the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, blockading them and frequently refusing to allow humanitarian aid to reach these places. Israel has officially removed any military presence from the Gaza Strip but the walls remain. A border crossing with Egypt allowed aid into the country, but since the violence of the Arab Spring, the border has been closed. Combined, Gaza and the West Bank are the third highest recipient of foreign aid in the world.

The wall is officially called the Geder HaHafrada in Hebrew, which means Seperation Fence. The Arabs call it Jidar al-Fasl al-‘Unsuri or The

Graffiti on the West Bank Wall quoting Kennedy’s 1963 “Ich bin ein Berliner” Speech

Wall of Apartheid. It has been compared to South Africa and mostly famously to the Berlin Wall. Nelson Mandela even spoke out against it when he was freed from prison. Some have called this the new border between Arab Palestine and Israel despite Israeli claims that it is a temporary measure to ensure security. The concrete wall spans a huge region of the area surrounding Jerusalem, isolating and separating Arabs from each other and Jews.

With peace talks having come to nothing for almost ten years now, nothing has significantly changed. If anything, it’s getting worse. Israel claims to be taking these measures for their own security, but by oppressing the Muslims in the region, they gain new enemies for themselves among the surrounding nations and the world. Unfortunately, The Golden Rule does not exist in Jewish theology like it does in Christian, but if you are fighting a brutal and monstrous group with brutality and monstrosity, haven’t you become the thing you wish to abolish?

Now is a time for action. Now is a time for change. Now is a time for breaking down barriers, physical and personal, and accept each other as neighbors. Netanyahu, tear down this wall!

 

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