THE MATCH UP:
BERLIN WALL VS. ISRAELI WALL
“The Israeli wall is like stitches on a wound -- a painful, foreign and disfiguring presence that is nevertheless necessary to make the wound heal. When the wound has healed -- when the region achieves lasting peace -- the temporary measure can be removed. Those who fight the wall today are like a patient who tears out his stitches before it's time.”
~Ilya Shlyakhter
This fervent quote conveys that walls are generally just a temporary fix to resolve conflict and issues between two or more parties. It refers to the impasse involving the never-ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how the Wall is supposedly meant to answer the quandary between the two countries. Likewise, the Berlin Wall was built under similar reasoning. The history and influences of Germany’s Berlin Wall and Israel’s Israeli Wall are both symbols of the strengths and weaknesses of human character.
As with all events in history, the reasons behind the construction of the walls were proxy actions to resolve conflicts between people. The Berlin Wall had major historical incentive. In 1945, after World War II, the victorious allies controlled Germany. The former capital city of Berlin was divided in two parts and split among the four powers: the Soviet Union controlled the eastern section of the city, and West Berlin was supported by the United States, France, and Great Britain. The Soviets and the Western Allies could not agree on many policies for governing the city, as each wanted to impose
their respective governmental system on Berlin. So, in effort to enforce their ideas of legislative processes, the building of the wall began.
“Early in the morning of Sunday, August 13, 1961, the GDR began under the leadership of Erich Honecker to block off East Berlin and the GDR from West Berlin by means of barbed wire and antitank obstacles. Streets were torn up, and barricades of paving stones were erected. Tanks...