Don't Call it a Wall (Ron HaCohen - Professor at Tel Aviv University)

[seventhson]

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July2004/HaCohen0707.htm


Don't Call it a Wall
by Ran HaCohen
www.dissidentvoice.org
July 7, 2004
First Published in AntiWar.com






A year ago, I urged readers to forget about President Bush's "Road Map to Peace" – on which so much attention was wasted at the time, by now a dead letter – and concentrate on the real map of Palestine, radically changed by the construction of Israel's Apartheid Wall, which was virtually ignored by the international media. A year has passed, and the silence has been broken: thanks to the work of several conscientious journalists, thanks to Palestinian efforts culminating in referring the Wall to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which is due to decide on its legality soon, and – last but not least – thanks to thousands of Palestinian, Israeli and international activists, of Ta'ayush, Gush Shalom and many other groups, whose daily non-violent demonstrations are dispersed with ruthless brutality by the Israeli army. The Wall is now on the agenda, and it should be. But is it a Wall at all?

Disputed Terms

The term has been disputed from the outset: "the Apartheid Wall" is the Palestinian name for what official Israel calls "Separation Fence" of "Security Fence". I preferred the Palestinian term: a fence sounded like a ludicrous euphemism for 8 meter (26 ft.) high concrete walls with a 100 meter (328 ft.) wide "security strip" just to start with. At present, the surveillance arsenal includes not only patrols and cameras, but even remote-control machine guns are being developed, which, as the Israeli media proudly report, will enable gentle female soldiers to shoot at "suspicious movements" (i.e. human beings) from behind a monitor in an air-conditioned office miles away. For the industry of killing, the sky is the limit.

In fact, both terms – Fence and Wall – are misleading. Even though most people know by now that the Wall is not constructed along the Green Line, but deep in Palestinian territory, de facto annexing to Israel a great part of it (one-third?), both Fence and Wall suggest some kind of contiguous line with the Palestinians on one side and the Israelis on the other. "We over here, they over there," as Barak's election slogan went. But is this what's going on? Not quite. Reality is far more horrible.

What the Wall Really Is


(MORE)

[Jim Sagle]

1. Why not call it the Peace Fence? That's what it is, after all.

The Peace Fence...making the world a better place, one brick at a time.

[seventhson]

2. I don't think you read the Israeli professor's article

did you?

why don't we call it them gulags or even ghettoes (HaCohen, an Israeli, does)?

why not just call them the Abu Ghraibs?

I found this extremely chilling and sad.

Like a little caribbeam group of Gitmo Islands in the desert.

[lefty_mcduff]

4. The Peace Fence?

Sounds like Orwell 101.
More like the 'shooting fish in a barrel' fence.

[Classical_Liberal]

5. Why not call it the "theft fence"?

That is what it is until it relocated to the green line? Making the world a more unjust place one brick at a time!

[number6]

15. wall of land-theft and oppression, ....racism, hate, cruelty .....

now a security barrier could be built on the green line...

"Making the world a more unjust place one brick at a time!"
........Bush Campaign slogan ?

[hansolsen]

18. You might enjoy reading a recent post in another thread along these lines

Here is the link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x74607#74747

[Jack Rabbit]

7. It's a Piece Fence

Annexing the West Bank one piece at a time.

[newyorican]

10. It's not made with bricks...

but that doesn't rule out some posters here and their alleged thought process.

[bigbillhaywood]

12. Jim, everytime I read one of your posts, it makes my day. nt

[bemildred]

3. Cages? Cages would work. nt

[seventhson]

6. HaCohen, an Israeli, calls them cages, open air prisons, ghettos and more.

"Wall" a Misnomer

Now this is neither a Wall nor a Fence. Just like you don't call a book "a paper," or bread "flour," you won't call this a Wall. What Israel is building in the West Bank is made of walls and fences, but it is not a wall or a fence. It is something very different. I am not sure about its proper name: ghettos? Extra-judicial detention centers? Open-air prisons? A network of cages for humans? I am not sure there is a name for it; I am not sure it has a precedent in human history. Not only has it got nothing to do with the comparatively miniature Berlin Wall, it has clearly very little to do even with the Apartheid Bantustans, which encompassed tens of thousands of square kilometers each. The West Bank cages often comprise just a few hectares, which is a different thing altogether.

[Jim Sagle]

8. Ah, what does he know?

[seventhson]

9. he has to live there so he should know something

and I suspect as a Jew he knows a fair bit about ghettoes

[newyorican]

11. He knows it's not made from...

bricks.

[bigbillhaywood]

13. God's Compassionate Conservative Natl Security White Picket Fence

It's a fence that embraces family values, cute little babies and it also helps weight loss and enlarges your penis and/or breasts. Those who oppose the fence also oppose kittens and sunshine-- they have dark skin and will impregnate your daughters and wives.

[number6]

16. hal-a-lew-yah :o

"God's Compassionate Conservative Natl Security White Picket Fence"

LOL LOL and LOL cuts taxes too !!!!!

[Djinn]

14. kicking

:kick:

[number6]

17. what a kick

:kick:

[bigbillhaywood]

19. Don't call it a comeback...(LL Cool J, professor at Rhymes University)

nt

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

20. Holy Mating Excrement! Take a look at this map!

From the article (this is not the entire "wall", just a small section)



Now, HOW do I correctly refer to this without breaking Godwin's Law?