Separation Wall Tour

Emily, me, Danny Seideman, Amy in front of the E1 settlement which is controversial land where possible Israeli settlements might be built.




The Separation Wall Tour was given by Danny Seideman, a self employed lawyer who knows a lot about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and who has made an impact in political decisions regarding the conflict, both here in Israel and in the U.S. He could walk into the White House at any time, un-announced and be listened to. Basically, this guy knows what he's talking about. He first gave us a presentation about the conflict. We discussed the conflict and why the separation wall was built. It was built as a tool to protect Israeli civilians from Palestinian terrorism which included suicide bombing attacks that took place durring the al-Asqa Intifada. The wall has reduced the nubmer of suicide bombings from 2002-2005. This wall isn't more than a few miles a way from where we live at the top of Mt. Scopus.
I hadn't really felt or seen the conflict be so existant until we visited the wall and saw what was written on it and learned about it. The wall was put up, following the Green Line, or Armistice line of 1949. This wall suddenly separated not just territory of people, but of neighborhoods and friends. People now couldn't get to the mosque they had always gone to, or the grocery store they visited each day. It caused many deaths because people couldn't get to the hospital in time, having to get to a checkpoint first. The separation wall is till the point of much controversy but is seen as necessary by the Israeli Government, so it's still up.
Our Islam teacher, Adnan Musallam, lives in Bethlehem and has to pass through check points each time he comes to teach us. He's not allowed to drive across the border and has to present his papers and go through detectors each time he needs to get into Jerusalem. He paused one day in class and told us "Be grateful that you live in the country that you do. Be grateful that you don't have to present papers every time you need to get to the next town, even if it's three miles away. Be thankful for the freedoms you have."
What little things I take for granit as I live life in America. How blessed we truly are to live with the freedoms that we have.