Israel

My first day in Jerusalem I decided to do the Ramparts Walk. Gazing out from atop the high walls I noticed another high wall that is currently being built to effectively separate Israel from the Palestinians. I´m no security expert, but from what I´ve heard the wall has been most effective in limiting the number of suicide bombings in the country. On the other hand, it has become a most effective symbol of discriminatory acts levelled against the Palestinians who have dubbed it the Apartheid Wall. For good or bad, it is also a symbol of the tensions and daily facts of life in this troubled region.
The same day I witnessed a small group of demostrators walking through the streets of the city with banners that read: A Palestinian State---Never. Of all the peoples in the world I would think that the Jewish people understand what it is like to long for a homeland and to know the profound joy and pride of now having one. For those few waving their signs and flashing their posters that afternoon, I wondered how they could have so little sympathy for those whose same longing has not yet been fulfilled.


Many and sharp the numerous ills
Inwoven with our frame;
More pointed still, we make ourselves
Regret, remorse and shame;
And man, whose heaven-erected face
The smiles of love adorn,
Man´s inhumanity to man,
Makes countless thousands mourn.

Robert Burns