Jews are creating their own ghetto warns Israeli

-1/9/04

Jews are not making themselves safer by building a security wall in Israel but are rather sending themselves back into a ghetto, according to an Israeli Jew writing in a publication launched today by Christian Aid agency World Vision and the Christian Socialist Movement.

Rami Elhanan writes in Barrier to Peace? Perspectives on the Barrier that the construction is a "wall of hatred" and will not make life better for Jews in the Palestinian Territories: "As a Jew, the most alarming thing for me is that my people are getting back into the ghetto.

"We are creating our own ghetto, which will not protect us. It will make us give up any hope. It will make us give up any dialogue or negotiation and connection with our neighbours. It will make us feel full of power when we are really powerless. The price of this wall is too high. It will put the very existence of the State of Israel in jeopardy."

Mr Elhanan, former soldier and father of a girl killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber, is one of two contributors to Barrier to Peace? Perspectives on the Barrier, the other is Reverend Alex Awad, an ordained Palestinian Christian and Dean of Students at Bethlehem Bible College in Bethlehem. The former spends much of his piece explaining why most Israeli

Jews support the wall's construction. The latter writes about how devastating the effect the wall has on Palestinians and on the future of the peace process.

"As Palestinian territories shrink due to the wall, so will the Palestinian ability to form a viable state on what little that is left," writes Rev Awad. "Israelis deceive themselves when they assume that they can throw Palestinians into fenced in, isolated islands of historic Palestine, while Israelis enjoy the fruits of the imposed peace and security.

"It did not work for the apartheid regime of South Africa and it will not work for Israel. This wall will not make good neighbours. This wall will embitter and impoverish Palestinians and add fuel to militancy and terrorism."

The publication suggests that a glimmer of hope for the future of this land is the dialogue between both Palestinian and Israeli parents who have lost children to the ongoing violence. Mr Elhanan writes about discovering the Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace: "? it is a venture of people who paid the highest price possible yet are still able to put aside the anger and the natural will to retaliate by talking.

"They see this as the only means of getting anywhere and breaking the endless and meaningless cycle of violence. If we who lost our loved ones and paid the highest price possible can talk to one another, then anyone can."

Barrier to Peace? Perspectives on the Barrier is being launched by international aid and development agency World Vision and the Christian Socialist Movement at an event in London on September 1. Guest speakers will include Palestinian human rights lawyer Jonathan Kuttab and Canon Colin Chapman lecturer at Near East School of Theology, Beirut, Lebanon.