Hard line

This article at The Media Line lays out in frank detail some of the difficulties being inflicted on the palestinian population by the fence. As I read it, I begin to feel that surely there must be some way for Israel to protect herself against terrorist incursions without causing such disruption and hardship.

While drinking a bitter black coffee, Nawal Abu Qalbein, a 48-year-old housewife and resident of Abu Dis, explained her family’s daily hardships. Nawal lives on the western side of the buffer, some 250 yards away.

“My mother lives on the other side of the wall. Before this wall was erected, I used to visit her every evening. It took me fifteen minutes to walk to her house. Today, I can either take a taxi – which is expensive – or walk more than two hours, until I circle the wall,” said Nawal.

Nawal has five children. Three go to school, one graduated high school this month, and the eldest is a student at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis. The problem is that all the children’s schools are located on the eastern side of the wall. Again, the route that used to take them a few minutes is now much longer.

This shouldn't be. Surely there's a better solution. Surely the people of this village just want to live their lives in peace and a way should be found to permit them to do so without endangering the security of the people of Israeli villages, towns and cities. And then I read on.

Ahmad, unemployed for a few years now, has some very definite ideas of his own as to the possibility of peace and the future in general. “No peace is possible as long as the current Israeli government is in power,” he said. In his opinion, peace is very easy to obtain. “The Jews must return to the pre-1967 borders, and all the Palestinian refugees will return to their homes. Once this happens – peace will come.”

Yes, surely it will, because there will no longer be a State of Israel. But, as it turns out, Ahmad isn't pretending otherwise.

But even if peace eventually comes, the future of the Jews is already determined, Ahmad opined. He picked up a rock and said, “If this rock could speak, it would have told us ‘any Jew who’s hiding underneath me – kill him’. This is what our Quran tells us. I do not know when this will happen – maybe in a year’s time, maybe in 500 years, but it is predetermined.”

And so, I'm brought abruptly back to the unfortunate reality of "the situation." This shouldn't be but, sadly, it must be, because Israel's enemies are leaving her no other options.

No one pretends that these issues are straightforward, and no one with any sense of humanity or compassion can possibly be entirely comfortable with the solutions that Israel has felt obligated to implement in order to defend herself. But no one has yet come up with a better way.

Update: Israel's Supreme Court appears to disagree.