THE LIVING CHURCH • January 15, 2012

By Edward S. Little II

“I yearn for the day,” a retired Israeli colonelsaid tome, “when I can begin pulling down the wall— whenI can personally remove the first block of concrete.”My fellow pilgrims and I stood with him, that day in thelate spring of 2010, in the shadow of the 30-foot con-crete slabs that grimly dominate portions of Bethle-hem andJerusalem.“But that time,” the colonel, whois highly respected in the Israeli defense establish-ment, told us with obvious and profound sadness, “isnot yet.”Those words, and the hope and the sorrowthat undergird them, are seared into my heart.The Very Rev. O.C. Edwards, Jr., writes powerfullyand with deep compassion of the suffering endured byPalestinians who must navigate the barrier every day— hours spent in line, security personnel looming, theair crackling with hostility and suspicion, a daily anddehumanizing experience.I am grateful for his articleand his heart for reconciliation.My own pilgrimage toIsrael and Palestine in 2010 included an opportunity to pass through the security barrier, and I well rememberthe sense of claustrophobia as we squeezed through anarrow passageway, concrete on one side, iron bars onthe other.What would it be like, I found myself won-dering, if I had to do this

every day

?Perhaps especially during theAdvent and Christianseason, many Episcopalians prayedfor the securitybarrieraround Bethlehem to come down.And I too pray for the day when the barrier will no longer be nec-essary.Our hearts reach out to people whose lives aredisrupted daily, some of whom are separated fromtheir own agricultural fields, some who wait for hourseach day to cross into Israel for their jobs. “But thattime,” as the Israeli colonelsaid, “is not yet.”Why?Because we cannot be assured that suicide attackswould cease if the barrier camedown. Until a just and permanent peace is achieved, with a viable state forPalestinians and effective security measures in placefor Israelis, the Israelis believe— with justification— that to demolish the barrier would place themonce more in grave danger.The purpose of the security barrier, we mustremember, was to save lives— and it has done this.Until the Second Intifada broke out in September2000, there was no security barrier.Palestinians andIsraelis traveled back and forth pretty freely.Butby2002, 659 innocent persons had been killed and manymore severely maimedin terrorist attacks in Israel.The causalities included 29 members of a single fam-ily at a Passover Seder in Netanya in March 2002, andonAug.19, 2003, 23 died in a single bus explosion,including seven children who were returning from atrip to the Western Wall. All of the terrorists came from the West Bank,crossing virtually unimpeded into Israel,where life

This Wall Saves Lives

This is the second of two pieces on Israeli-Palestinian relations. The first,“Un-Silent Nights in Bethlehem,” appeared in the Jan. 1 issue of T

IVING

HURCH

CATHOLIC VOICES