walled in. kept out.
the green line is the green line. duh! the black line is the 'proposed' wall. the red is the land 'lost' by the wall. man! thys sounds like somet outta tuh dark ages,   "It's a wall, and it's illegal - and dangerous" is an article that appeared in the international herald tribune yesterday. it's written in simple english, and i seriously hope everyone reads it. here is an equally informative article by Ann Petter, an american journalist who went to israel to protest against building the wall... except the lady was thrown in prison the day she landed, and was announced a security threat to the country. i'm quoting somethyng i got in email today:

On Friday, July 9, the World Court ruled that the Wall built well inside Palestinian Territories must come down. The Wall that Israel is building looms 26 feet high in places and already snakes close to 100 miles through villages and farmlands of the West Bank. July 2004 marks the start of the 3rd year of construction on this complex series of electronic fences and concrete walls which is ripping its way through Palestinian lands at an ever-increasing pace. Beginning in the northern part of the West Bank, the first phase of the project is complete and 200,000 people living in the area have been directly affected by the Wall, with 3,670 acres of land razed for the Wall's footprint. Within this first phase, 16 villages and 30,000 acres west of the Wall have been de facto annexed to Israel and some 50 villages are separated from their lands. Israel has confiscated 36 groundwater wells in this area well know for its agricultural value and has uprooted some 102,000 trees. The first phase also saw massive demolitions; for example, over 200 shops in the northwest village of Nazlet Issa were destroyed in a single afternoon. Now, a 26 foot high concrete Wall runs through the land where the market once stood.

architechture has been used since time immemorial by the rulers to establish their "presence" in the active imagination of their subjects. the pharaohs built the pyramids, the ottomans built the blue mosque, and turned the hagia sofia into a mosque. Qutbuddin Aibak built the Qutb minar (using materials from razed hindu temples) and shah jehan built the taj mehal. the idea wasnt ever to construct "pretty buildings"... it was psychological subjugation. the bigger better and stronger buildings represented their patrons. the fact is, this wall will hardly keep out insurgents. where there is the will, theres the way. and imposed boundaries and curfews always piss people off. the wall isnt even going to make israel any more secure. what it WILL do, is create another generation born and bred in hatered. the children who will play in the shadow of the wall will not be intimidated by it's size. each day they will vow to bring the wall down. at all costs. and fer sure it will create MORE suicide bombers. the palestinians who now believe peace may be procured thru peaceful means, will stop doing that. you just can create barricades around a people because it suits your bloody fancy. "take what you want,' said god, 'and then pay for it." need visual assistance to imagine what a 100 mile long 26' high wall looks like? see here. or here. or here. or here. or here. or google "west bank wall".