In December, along with my Western Law colleague, Associate Dean of Law Michael Lynk, I made my first visit to Israel and the West Bank.
The main purpose of our visit was to visit Al Quds University to discuss co-operation between our two law faculties. While we were there, we took advantage of this unique opportunity to meet with a number of other individuals and organizations to receive briefings on the state of affairs on both sides of the divide between these two peoples.
On the Israeli side I met with a spokesperson from the office of Prime Minister Netanyahu, the local head of the Canada-Israel Committee, a political science professor, and the designer of the Barrier between Israel and the West Bank. I also had a very fruitful meeting with the director of the student legal clinic at Hebrew University and found that we had many common issues in our respective clinics.
On the West Bank, in addition to meetings at Al Quds, Prof. Lynk and I met with the Canadian representative to the Palestinian Authority (in effect the ambassador) in Ramallah.
We also met with three UN agencies who gave us their views.
By meeting with both sides, I was able to look at the Barrier (also called the Wall or the Fence) that has been built by Israel along much of the border with the West Bank through the eyes of both Palestinians and Israelis. The Barrier is a powerful symbol of the divisions between Israelis and Palestinians.
I came home with a sense of pessimism, even foreboding. Despite the best efforts of President Obama, I do not see a path to a settlement between Israel and Palestine.
We arrived in Jerusalem in the middle of a dust storm. It was a fitting analogy for the situation as I see it in the Middle East. I am very concerned that another storm will begin to build in the near term, one that will bring pain to both peoples.
This is the first of a four part series of blogs on my visit to the Middle East where I will try to set out my understanding of the positions of both sides as they have been explained to me. I will compare them to what I saw on the ground, and examine their strengths and weaknesses from my point of view.
Next: Part II – The Barrier and the West Bank
there is a lot more to the beautiful country of Israel then the Palestinian conflict, hope you got to see some of it.
The conflict is a depressing situation as you say, it is also quite fascinating how it’s been manipulated and constructed in the public conscious. We often forget why it’s happening and that it is not a battle of equals as we Canadians like to look at everything as a balanced situation. There is a terrorist organization that has withheld foreign aid from it’s own people, put the money into arms and then blamed the enemy for keeping their people in poverty. And on the other side a democratic society where their hospitals treat Arabs and Jews with equal vigour, and in 60 short years the hard working people have taken every opportunity to build a strong country in every sense of the word, from agriculture to technology to military. But now, because of their success they are seen as the big bully next to the poor people of Palestine.
Did you know that when the West Bank was handed over, all the greenhouses and modern agriculural technology was demolished as a demonstration of hatred of Jews. Gee, imagine if they had used all the plenty that was left for them instead of acting out of hate. And yet Israel is seen as being at fault for building a wall for protection from this hate.
The “barrier” is also called the “security wall” because before it was built there was a continual string of bombings of innocent people at pizzerias, nursery schools, transit and other places of gathering. I remember it well because at the time i said to myself, they should build a wall and keep terrorists out. Then they did. And since then we haven’t seen the kind of terrorism that was a regular occurance in Israel. It is problematic though, because how do you take it down? It was like a bandaid, but at some point you need to take the bandaid off and let it heal.
Now that you’ve been, you can imagine that Israel is a democracy like Canada and if these autrocities were being committed in your neighbourhood, think about if you would allow your people to be lame ducks sitting in fear or if you would protect them as best you could. The wall was effective as a security measure.
I would say it will need a new generation for peace, but unfortunately we’ve seen the videos of Palastinian toddlers with guns being taught to hate. All we can do is hope. Hope that the people will decide that it’s time for peace and to put the past behind them and work together as good neighbours. It happened with Egypt and Jordan and it is possible, just needs the will which hasn’t been there in the past on both sides at the same time in earnest.
Looking forward to your insights. All the best!