I’ve been living in Bethlehem for about a month now (more on that later). Some 20 years ago, I was barely 4, and Berlin had some big wall come down. I hear it carried the momentum to finally end Communism in Europe. I don’t remember much about it honestly, I know a thing or two about walls here though. I’ve been the the Gaza border probably 100 times at least. If I walk 30 seconds down the street I can see the wall to the East in the distance, blocking off a certain hill the Israelis built on without paying a penny to the Palestinian land owners who were subsequently blocked by the wall (probably the most well documented case). A 10 minute walk up the hill to the North and I’m at the Bethlehem wall itself. They call it a lot of different things, the Apartheid Wall by Palestinians, the Security Fence by Israelis, and neutrally the “separation barrier” or similar moniker by the media. Not going to stick my nose out and say anything politically provocative, but I think everyone can agree that making giant concrete walls covered in barbed wire with guard posts are not the proudest achievements a progressive culture can make, whether necessary or not. I’ll let the politicians…politic. There's not much to say that doesnt involve getting into big issues, so here are a few simple thoughts this wall has given me from primary experience as I pass by it:
“wow, I am not wanted,”
“there must be some kind of minotaur on my side, these streets are quite labyrinth like, I’m kind of worried!”
“it’s trying to keep inside,”
“man this thing is tall, they must really not want me to be on the other side,”
“there has to be something secret or valuable on that side,”
“it looks greener over there,”
“this is the world’s biggest canvas,”
“this thing has to be 30 feet tall, with barbed wire at the top, seems like a little overkill..,”
“I feel sorry for all these business right on this side with their brand new view of concrete and …more concrete,”
“I wonder, if we got enough people to march around this thing blowing trumpets for a few days..,”
“there are cracks in it, and it seems just as famous, maybe I should start sticking prayers in it”
“if they weren’t so…than this wouldn’t be… yeah but if they didn’t…no one would…”
“Jesus probably wouldn’t be too happy about this”
Crossing the border isn’t so bad, I’d take it over an LA commute for sure. Depending on the time of day there will sometimes be a line, and you have to go through a bunch of metal detectors…take off the belt and the shoes, put your hand on a handprint scanner, present an ID, walk by a bunch of heavily armed and very bored soldiers. Generally, I just do my best to look like some yokel tourist from America, patriotically flash them my US passport and they typically let me circumvent a lot of the security.
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