The city of Jerusalem is considered holy to many different religions including Judaism, Islam and Christianity. We took a tour of this holy city with Yaron Ovadia (Amnon’s old friend from the army; when he had hair). Yaron gave us a tour of the Haas Promenade. As we wandered the promenade we had a panoramic view of the Holy City of Jerusalem. The view could be confused with a postcard, it was so beautiful. Looking out, there are three major buildings that rise above the rest. The first was the Dome of the Rock, the holy site for Muslims; next was a white dome, the Horva Synagogue; and lastly we saw the top of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. From this view we could see these three buildings – representations of the three religions that see Jerusalem as a holy city. However there was another part to this picture , and it was a large wall in the middle. To the Jews this site is a security barrier, but to the Palestinians it is the separation wall. The idea of this wall was taken from the efficient fences at Gaza. There was a fence put on the Gaza border that stopped terrorist from entering Israel. The success of this fence lead to implementing this same technique in the West Bank. Ariel Sharon, the prime minister at the time who was right wing, did not like the idea of the wall but ultimately he felt it was necessary for security and it was built.
We drove along the separation wall to see what it was like. The enormous wall made it difficult to observe our surroundings. This barrier completely blocked us off from the world of the West Bank. For the Jews it is unsafe to go into the Arab neighborhoods, but the Arabs venture into the Jewish neighborhoods everyday for work.
The fence is not simply a matter of security, but rather a religious and territorial matter as well.
We drove along the separation wall to see what it was like. The enormous wall made it difficult to observe our surroundings. This barrier completely blocked us off from the world of the West Bank. For the Jews it is unsafe to go into the Arab neighborhoods, but the Arabs venture into the Jewish neighborhoods everyday for work.
The fence is not simply a matter of security, but rather a religious and territorial matter as well.