The Separation Barrier, West Bank

The face of the separation barrier just outside of Bethlehem, West Bank. Rows of barbed wire top the thirty foot concrete walls which are plastered with posters and propaganda, graffiti, signatures, protests, insults, injuries, and bullet holes. Spending a day in the small town of Bethlehem I witnessed the devastation caused by the wall, a side of a conflict that is little heard. Children cannot reach their schools, farmers are cut off from their lands, fathers and mothers are barred from jobs across the border and its many check points. For both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the wall is a powerful symbol albeit for very different reasons. In its controversy though, the wall itself offers itself as a captivating medium for expression, artistic, emotional, and political.