I did not want to screw up this information, so I quoted from a global policy forum website:
“At the heart of the Israel/Palestine conflict lies the question of land and who rules it. The collision of Jewish nationalist colonisation and Palestian nationalism, both laying claim to the same territory, forms the basis of this long conflict, deepened by the tragedies of the Holocaust and of the dispossession and occupation of Palestine. The United Nations partition of the land in 1947, an effort to resolve the two claims simultaneously, did not result in a lasting settlement.
Since 2002, the Israeli government has been building a “security fence” that winds deep into Palestinian territory, claiming the barrier would keep Palestinian suicide bombers from striking Israeli citizens. But this separation wall is a major de facto annexation of Palestinian territories. By building the wall and increasing settlement expansion, Israel retains control over important Palestinian economic areas, agricultural grounds and natural resources like water. The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel’s West Bank barrier violates international law, but the unequal struggle over the land of Palestine continues.”
The following pictures are taken inside the wall- people are trying to live as best they can inside the “refugee camps” that have turned into cities- but you can see they are very poor. The people seemed friendly. As I was taking photos – many smiled at me (which is much more than I can say about some of our previous stops.) Kids were on bikes, but very few people were on the streets.
marschmadness 