{"id":548,"date":"2018-12-26T11:33:12","date_gmt":"2018-12-26T16:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/borderblog\/?p=548"},"modified":"2023-12-15T11:18:06","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T16:18:06","slug":"walls-and-theater-of-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/borderblog\/walls-and-theater-of-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Walls, Terrorism, and Theater of Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"Most\u00a0 people who oppose building a wall on the US-Mexico border think it is\u00a0 unnecessary, harmful to wildlife, and sends a terrible, xenophobic message about what the United States has become. All of which is true, but also beside the point\u2014which is that it will not have much effect on migration or drug trafficking, but will make Americans less aware and more frightened of the world outside.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/borderblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Bethlehem-Trump-kissing-the-wall.jpg\")
I didn\u2019t understand that until I spent a month traveling in Israel and the West Bank. I had heard about the wall there, both from supporters of the Israeli government who credit it with ending terrorist bombings and from supporters of the Palestinians who see it as an instrument for grabbing Palestinian land, dividing Palestinian farmers from their fields, making life difficult for Palestinians who need to cross into Israel, and reminding Palestinians that they are trapped and isolated.<\/p>\n
Indeed, I had heard so much about the wall as a hardship and barrier that I was startled when I got to the West Bank and found young men constantly telling stories of climbing over it\u2014to visit friends and family, find jobs, or just go to a party or a concert. Many of them laughed and talked about it like a teenage rite of passage. Not all had made the trip themselves, but all had friends who had, and some had done it multiple times. \u201cIt just costs twenty dollars,\u201d one told me. \u201cYou pay a guy, and he puts a ladder up on this side and throws a rope to climb down the other side.\u201d Returning is no problem, because there are no controls in the other direction.<\/p>\n
Of course, the wall does keep most Palestinians from crossing easily: families, older people, women, children\u2014anyone who doesn\u2019t want to climb a wall and take a chance on being arrested, who just wants to go shopping or take their kids to the beach or commute to work. And, of course, it\u2019s a problem for anyone carrying luggage or goods, any drivers, ambulances, buses. The only people for whom it\u2019s not a real problem are young, adventurous guys\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2026which is to say, the only people for whom it’s not a problem are\u00a0 the most likely\u00a0 soldiers, fighters, or troublemakers.<\/p>\n
The ease of wall-crossing is not just popular hearsay. Estimates of how many Palestinians enter Israel without going through official checkpoints vary, but all are impressively high\u2014an LA Times story cites the Israeli state comptroller\u2019s guess that \u201cmore than 50,000 Palestinian laborers\u2026 work in Israel illegally on a daily basis.\u201d (It adds that along with climbing over the wall, many use drainage ditches to get under it or find unfinished or damaged sections.)![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/borderblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/kid-at-checkpoint.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/borderblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/wall-to-fence.jpg\")
and motion sensors. Given all the stories of Palestinian climbers, I would not be surprised if these less imposing stretches are actually a more effective barrier\u2014but the towering concrete wall is far more impressive, and it struck me that its massive ugliness is no accident. Its size and weight are a constant reminder to Israeli Jews of the horrors lurking on the other side, the enemies so fearsome that mere wire cannot keep them out. It is theater; theater of fear.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/borderblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/wall-paintings.jpg\")
and what better way to divide than with a towering wall?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/borderblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/anata-wall-copy.jpg\")
<\/p>\n