This is a video I found on youtube that gives a prety good visual show of the Israeli wall and how it is affecting different cities: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCvicMVgM-c
This video talks about the city of Ramallah which is discussed in our book. It shows how a border can effect simple things in every day life. Pay attention to some of the grafitti on the wall, such as the part at about 6 min and 45 seconds where you see "Welcome to Abu Dis Ghetto." I like this video because it really lets you see what it would be like to have a wall of this magnitude in your city that is actually much larger than the Berlin wall was. However, truth be told, this video is relatively biased towards the Palestinian side because it only shows the effects of the wall on the local Palestinian population and doesnt talk about why it was built or the israeli point of view. May Israelis would argue that the wall has helped scale back suicide attacks and has made Israel safer. But it brings up the question of if you are keeping a people caged up like animals, maybe you have more control, but in the long run its creating more anger and resetment. Also, you'll notice that many of the complaints have had to do with where the wall has been placed. The wall is based upon the West bank 1949 Armistice line, known as the green line, but has over the years been incorporating new settlements in the west bank for the Israelis.
Ben pointed out some very good points--the 'daily life' issues and how grafitti is used to mark space and create commentary. one thing to look at when you view this video is the comments. The responses in some cases (most cases) are very angry. As you explore the debates surrounding the wall think about how rhetoric (how the debate itself is constructed) is used to build other kinds of walls between the populations.
ReplyDeleteThat was an incredible video. I am feeling much more informed, yet confused about the purpose for the wall. It looks as though it is protection, but is it? Or is it simply a way to control the citizens. The isolation and confusion it causes appears to have more of a negative influence than the cultural disagreements within the cultures. Historically walls have been used for similar reasons, although this wall is much larger and permanent. Thanks for the great video! I also got hooked on many of the other videos surrounding that one and ended up spending a long time looking in awe at the wall and the check points. I do hope to understand all of this better through these blogs.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this video as well. I think it does a good job of re-confirming that in the history of our world that intentionally physically separating people has never worked out the way it was intended too and had a negative impact on all parties in many aspects.
ReplyDeleteAmerica is guilty of this in some sense as well during WWII with the Japanese Internment camps. Now it is just a piece of history American's are not exactly proud of. Same with the period of segregation that did nothing positive in our nation, and again a piece of our history Americans don't take pride in.
In the book "The Lemon Tree" co-existence between the Jews and the Arabs is touched on. For example on page 10. During this period of time the two groups of people lived in their own worlds but interaction exsisted, and they managed with out walls or laws that created a tangible divide between them.
When humans try to control too many aspects of life by creating too many laws, give and take freedoms, grant and deny land or property, favor certian religions,and allow greed of wealth to guide their decisions the world no longer is following it's natural order. We as one human race have far too much valuable history to continue to follow the patterns and repeat atrocities over and over again.