Holy Land: all about borders

Vatican Radio) The pilgrimage of solidarity by bishops from North America and Europe to Christian communities in the Holy Land is in its final stages. Vatican Radio's Veronica Scarsbrick is in Jerusalem with the delegation and sends us this report:
If you've ever travelled to the Holy Land you'll know it's all about borders both geographical and interior. Take Jerusalem for example the Holy City where Jesus died and resurrected: so called "separation walls" divide it from nearby Bethlehem where he was born. Walls that keep Palestinians hemmed in with little or no freedom to move within their own country. Where fresh faced Israeli soldiers in combat gear carrying heavy machine guns stand at check points.
Huge great walls, twice the size of the “Berlin Wall” that snake round and about the West Bank settlements built on Palestinian land.
Begun in 2002 they are still being built today, a sad sight indeed. As Pope Benedict XVI said when he visited the Holy Land in 2009: it’s” one of the saddest sights for me during my visit to these lands”. Famous here is the one begun in the "Cremisan" area close to a village near Bethlehem, Beit Jala. The purpose is to divide it from two Israeli settlements on facing hill tops: Har Gilo and Gilo. The Cremisan’s Christian community is desolate. Their road will become a military one. The families that live there will no longer be able to access their terraced olive groves and vineyards.
Life will become impossible for fifty eight Palestinian families. The Salesian sisters who run a school there will have the wall running through the property. Around 400 children from poor or broken families will no longer be able to access the premises; a spring of water will be out of reach. Access will be via one guarded entrance. And if those who own the land do not cultivate it they will lose it, according to the laws that apply in the West Bank already.
This pending threat of the wall encouraged the sisters to bring the matter to court in 2006. An on going court case to which I’d like to add how six months ago Jerusalem Municipality released plans to expand one of the two settlements. Just think: a wall to separate Palestinians from Palestinians allows the two settlements to expand once they lose the right to ownership of their agricultural land. How this sad story of geographical barriers will end up remains to be seen. What’s certain is that the “Cremisan wall” story, recently picked up by the international media has become a symbol of resistance against the so called “apartheid wall” , a symbol of hope.

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