West Bank

West Bank (I would love to hear people's thoughts on this post in the comments.)

Yikes. So when I went on the 30 minute journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, I ended up having to pass through one of the West Bank checkpoints. It was more of a maximum security prison than the maximum security prison I visited in North Carolina. For obvious reasons I did not take any pictures, but just imagine a huge compound with barbed wire fences and people stationed around with guns. I walked through a maze of passages and gates (some only buzzed you through after they viewed you through the cameras above) and got to a person at the window. I watched her argue with some guy ahead of me, and in the middle of that she noticed I had an American passport and just waved me through. Didn't even look at it.

The city of Bethlehem doesn't feel much different than parts of Israel, although there seemed to be a bit more curiosity about me. Granted, there are many tourists that come to visit the Church of the Nativity, so perhaps deeper in the West Bank I may have attracted more attention. Everyone was very nice, though.

On the way back through the security checkpoint there was a long line of Palestinians waiting to be approved just to come back to their homes. (Some Palestinians are granted permission to cross the border every day for work. It is much more lucrative to work in Israel than impoverished Palestinian Territories.) As there is only one line for people both going and returning, I dutifully stood at the back of the line. After only about two minutes the soldier checking each person's creditials noticed my American passport in my hand and again waved me through without checking. I felt so awkward having to say "excuse me" and basically cut everyone in line! I apologized, and one Palestinian man said "it's okay, don't worry."

The comparisons to South African apartheid are quite relevant, I believe now that I've experienced it for only a few hours. Palestinians are denied citizenship of Israel, but their regional authority has very little autonomy. They must seek permission from Israel to leave each and every time.

I'm not trying to say I know much about this topic (although I'm really excited to read more) but I've read some material while I've been here. It seems that centuries (perhaps millenia) ago Arabs took the land from the Jews. Now, especially since the Jews had no homeland, they decided it was their right to take it back. Unfortunately, though, they forcibly removed people from their homes and placed them in very dense areas (West Bank, Gaza.)

I think an appropriate analogy might be Native Americans vs. European settlers. If the Native Americans came back to, say, North Carolina, and forced all the non-Native Americans to move into Fayetteville, NC (there's nothing attractive there...I can attest to that) and set up checkpoints around the perimeter, it would be quite similar to what the Jews have done. Yes, the Native Americans may have actual claim to the land after their people were removed and horrible atrocities committed against them, but is the solution to come back hundreds of years later with guns blazing?

I don't condone the fighting done on either side (Israeli/Palestinian) but I did have a very interesting lecture last semester on the topic. An international human rights lawyer described tenets of int'l law, and one of them is proportionality. While I'm sure it must be scary to live in parts of Israel that may have been reached by missiles from Gaza, the factual numbers of casualities and ammunition show that it is like throwing pebbles at a lion. I have spoken with people who have traveled to Gaza, and the conditions sound horrific for those people. I'm not saying that they should terrorize Israel with missiles, but that perhaps if Israel made a good-faith effort to improve those people's lives (people who still consider other Israeli cities as their true homes) the situation may not be so volatile.

I think I may leave it up to Bill Clinton to fix.