|
|
|
|
|
|
Bewailing walls of doom: Israel and beyond Héctor Abad Faciolince describes his visit to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and reflects on some of the far-reaching implications of Israel's ongoing Cisjordanian wall for the 21st century When I was in Jerusalem, as a matter of course I visited the Kotel HaMaaravi or Western Wall of the Temple, better known as the Wailing Wall. I placed my cap on the crown of my head, struck my head against the stone wall a few times while moving my body rhythmically and then wrote something on a piece of paper, rolled it up and left it in a crack for G-d (do not pronounce his sacred name in vain) to read when he has time. The Wailing Wall has, as we know, a special characteristic similar to that of the former hotline that linked the Kremlin to the White House during the Cold War. According to the assurances of some orthodox Jews, it is the precise point in the world “from which prayers take the least time to reach heaven.” I thought that the divine sense of hearing was equally acute in all parts of the globe, but evidently it is much more finely tuned to the Wall, to Rome and to Mecca. Be that as it may, I am not an atheist but a polytheist and I shall tell you what I wrote in my native Spanish on that piece of paper: “To Yahve, Allah, the Holy Ghost, Bachue and Quetzalcoatl, please. May there be an end to antisemitism in the world and may the Jewish people preserve the land of Israel (to within the limits of the green line) until the end of time.” That is what I wrote and I hope that one of my gods has a sufficient command of Spanish to be able to answer my humble pleas. But in Israel there are now two walls: the sacred Wailing Wall and the wall of Cisjordania, the pagan circle currently under construction which will separate Israelis from Palestinians. As I am interested in the sacred and the profane, I am coming to realise that that the latter wall is far wider and more imposing than the former. When I saw it I had the sensation that I was looking at a monster of political engineering with its fatal announcement of the world that awaits us in the very near future. During the 20th century – and I am thinking especially of the Berlin Wall – walls were built to keep people in so that no one would become dissatisfied. In the 21st century walls are built along the lines of the Great Wall of China in order to keep people out, to prevent desperate people from finding a better destiny, to avoid barbaric invasions. Israel is, basically, a fragment of the First World that has been inserted into the lands of the infidels. A rich, industrialised, prevalently white country where many western languages are spoken (and where Hebrew has recently been revived), which possesses the most sophisticated weaponry including nuclear bombs and which generally – at least for its own citizens though not for Palestinians – enjoys democratic freedom and the lay customs of the West. Just a few days ago the Hague Tribunal and the United Nations General Assembly declared the Israeli Wall illegal with 150 votes to 6. Curiously this time Colombia did not join the ridiculous chorus of countries like Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands which obey the United States and vote according to the will of the Empire. But my vote against the wall does not prevent me from making some more general considerations, especially on the hypocrisy of European countries. We know that Europe’s position is that Israel has the right to built its wall but with different frontiers. We also know that the 25 EU countries were considering abstaining at the UN Assembly but that after Sharon outraged France by inviting all French Jews to move to Israel as soon as possible in order to avoid being targeted, their vote changed. The matter may be expressed as follows: if France were surrounded by Islamic countries and Spain, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy were Arab, and suicide bomb attacks against French civilians were launched from these countries, together with gangs of shady Bracero bullies, then surely France too would be building a similar impenetrable wall on its own territory. And it would make sure that its president’s name was Le Pen. There is a Western example: a large portion of the frontier between Mexico and the United States has a defence barrier against immigrants from the south. What is
heralded by the Israeli wall, beyond all the rhetoric, is the path that the
whole of the rich First World will follow to defend itself from the more
populated poorer Third World: everyone will build walls. There will be real
walls made of cement like Israel’s where there is direct contact with the
poor, or more symbolic but no less impenetrable walls when they are more
distant, in the form of migration barriers (such as visas, mass deportation and
coastal patrols) imposed by Europe and the United States. Next time, if I ever
return to the Wailing Wall, this will be my plea to Yahve and Zeus: “May the
inhabitants of the poor countries not be we Jews massacred and offended in the
21st century!” That is what the new walls really mean – a barrier against
us, the thousands and millions of hyperpigmented citizens of the hyperpopulated
poor countries.
|
