Walls
I had one day to do sightseeing in Jerusalem, today. I started with a view from a scenic overlook, where I could see the old walled city of Jerusalem; from another I could see Bethlehem, 7 miles distant.
The walls of Jerusalem tell their story in stone, with the larger, rough-hewn ancient stones added to by layers of succeeding occupants. Like many a fortress, the walls were essentially built to keep intruders out.
The wall around Bethlehem is less attractive, and more troubling; it was built to keep people in. And it was only built in this decade. Bethlehem is a Palestinian city, mostly Christian Palestinians–unique, along with Nazareth to the north, in that regard. To the Palestinians, it is an occupied city surrounded by Israel; to the Israelis, it is Israel.
I was in Berlin just before the Wall there came down, and I found that troubling too. In that case, it was erected by a country that wanted to keep its own people in.
Robert Frost wrote, “Good fences make good neighbors.” I wonder what he would have made of the uses to which civilized nations are putting walls these days.
–Mary Hunt, editor, eFlyer
