"The mindless cycle of destruction must end..."

Separation wall

The above photo is of a section of the separation wall in East Jerusalem. The wall winds down the shallow dry valley. There is a road for military patrol vehicles which runs alongside the wall on the Israeli side. The wall is made of cement (the holes at the top of each slab are for the crane hook to hold; the wall was put up quickly but is probably very strong). It is tall enough to stop people climbing over it easily. In the middle distance, there is medium-rise housing which looks recent. There is a road on the left which leads to the settlement (which is quite far from the wall). The houses on the right are low-rise and quite close to the wall. There are no roads only dirt tracks. There seems to be rubbish lying about. Perhaps the people on the Palestinian side are poorer than the people on the Israeli side (the Israelis most probably have many decent roads, public lighting and sewerage facilities). There are a few trees and bushes. The landscape is dry and it is probably a very hot day. The valley is desert-like and there are no people. In the distance there are empty-looking hills. Is this a nice place to live?

Why is there a wall?

• The region around Jerusalem is disputed territory: the Israeli and Palestinian communities both claim the land is theirs.
• The wall was built by the Israelis to keep the Palestinians out of the territory they control (they are afraid of terrorist attacks, that is also why there are few Israeli houses close to the wall).
• The wall marks a militarized border (cf. the patrol road; there is probably barbed wire and a watch tower not far away).
• The wall "contains" the Palestinians (like in a prison) and makes controlling them easier (the Israelis keep a watch on the Palestinians).
• The wall is a way of demarcating Israeli territory (of showing the Palestinians that the land up to the wall is now in Israeli possession).
• For the Palestinians, the wall is a constant reminder of their humiliating situation.
• For the Israelis, the wall is a way of feeling safer and of asserting their presence in the region.

This documentary photo has no "artistic" pretence, but it was obviously taken to show a very sad situation; it is an illustration of extreme social and spatial disparity: a town is separated by a wall which reinforces the political, territorial, cultural, religious, and wealth divide. The Israelis are militarily strong, claim ownership of disputed land, are mostly Jewish and relatively wealthy. The Palestinians are militarily weak, feel their land is being illegally occupied, are mostly Muslim and relatively poor.

Separation wall in East Jerusalem

> Click HERE for the UN web page!

> Click HERE to read an article from THE DAY on the conflict!

To do/questions:

1. Read Ban ki-Moon's remarks on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
2. Research the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
3. Research the Israeli West Bank barrier.

Photo by Eman Mohammed

> Click HERE to watch a TED talk by Eman Mohammed!

Questions on Eman Mohammed's talk:

1. What is Eman's job?
2. Where was her first assignment?
3. Why do male colleagues not welcome her presence?
4. To what "worlds" were her male colleagues forbidden?
5. What flattened Mohammed Khader's house?
6. Did Eman "run away" (cf. her last sentence)?
7. What do you think of Eman?

To do:

Give a 60-second talk describing and commenting the photo of the kids in their jacuzzi (cf. 3'33'' of the video).


Answers to the questions:

1. She’s a photojournalist.
2. In the Gaza Strip (Palestine) when she was just nineteen.
3. Because local tradition does not allow women “to do a man’s job” (Eman even received death threats because of her choice of work).
4. To the worlds where only women are allowed (the domestic sphere).
5. An Israeli air raid.
6. No, she “stood still” (she stayed in Palestine) and courageously took photos of her fellow citizens, especially of the women whose lives are marginalized.
7. She is incredibly brave, idealistic and talented. She has to cope with the disadvantage in her society of being a young educated woman who has chosen a job dominated by men. She risks her life to take photos in a war zone to witness the lives of people who are suffering (the women doubly so: because of the conflict and because of their subordinate social position).