I had dinner last night in West Jerusalem with a colleague from Ben Gurion University. West Jerusalem, seen from the vantage of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, is a study in uneven development. Theaters and concert halls, private institutes and libraries, museums of Islamic arts, the Knesset--which proudly occupies a high point in the city—and restaurants full of well-dressed cosmopolitan and secular Israelis consuming pork and shellfish, which figures prominently on the menu.
Read MoreThe wall, like the Berlin Wall, is a wall of oppression. Having seen it and how it weaves throughout the West Bank, it is clear that it does not provide security but instead oppression, intimidation, economic hardship and the related dependence on foreign aid, and land theft. It is the Dispossession Wall.
Read MoreAs our delegation traveled around East Jerusalem, my heart repeatedly sank with grief. My heart sank with grief as we learned of Israel’s repeated expulsions of the Palestinian population from their homes and neighborhoods in and around Jerusalem, to make space for new Jewish neighborhoods and settlements beyond the internationally recognized Green Line.
Read MoreTransiting through Frankfurt my Verizon message service greeted me with a "Welcome to Germany!" Entering Tel Aviv I saw "Welcome to Israel"! But entering the West Bank the day we drove to Ramallah the message read "Welcome to Jordan!" What? Is Palestine disappearing?
Read MoreOur first up close encounter with the "separation wall," euphemistically called the "security fence" by Israel, or "the exclusion and annexation wall" by our Palestinian activist guide, was along the Jericho Road in East Jerusalem.
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