Visit to Hebron and At-Tuwani (Part 2)

Here is the second part of my trip from last Wednesday. On our way back, to Jerusalem we had to cross a checkpoint at Bethlehem. The check point is the way you get past the separation barrier, otherwise known as the security wall. The Israeli government is building the separation barrier around Palestine in order to protect itself from forms of violence. Since the wall began to be built, it has been under criticism. Not necessarily because people deny that Israel should protect themselves, but because the wall does many things that violate human rights. First of all the security wall has not been built along the designated borders between Palestine and Israel decided by the United Nations. It, instead, strategically follows a route that allows it to encroach on Palestinian land to protect the illegal settlements being built in the West Bank. The wall is also criticized for cutting through people's land, for which they are not compensated. Many farmers have had their olive trees, which constitutes their entire livelihood, either destroyed in order to build the wall or blocked by the wall, so that they cannot get to them. The wall has also cut off people from their villages and areas of work. In order to cross the wall, Palestinians must go through a walking check point. Here they have their ids check. Every Arab person is given an ID. If they have a West Bank ID, they need special papers to get across the wall. If they have a Jerusalem ID, they are allowed more freedom of movement. Sometimes the lines at these checkpoints take hours to get through.
One woman, that I have met at the place at which I am staying, works at the school at Notre Dame Cathedral in Jerusalem. Here family lives in Beit Zahour, which is on the other side of the wall. Notre Dame has to give her a room. She's stays here during the week. This is because, since the wall was built, she does not have time to live at home and cross the checkpoint and make it to work by 7:30 in the morning. Instead, she stays in Jerusalem and only gets to go home to see her family once or twice a week!