Despite the failure of the Berlin Wall, many were built afterwards
In The Herald every Thursday and Saturday own personal security. But to call it this way makes for a convenient defence of a policy they also know is little more than a land grab and indefensible in terms of international law.
“If you want security for your house, you build the wall in your own garden, not in your neighbour’s,” I once recall a Palestinian shopkeeper telling me near East Jerusalem where the wall had cut his business off from the village customers who gave him a meagre income.
Researchers point to the fact that walls are interesting because they are physical and symbolic sites of inclusion and exclusion that mark the inside from the outside.
This inside/ outside is the guiding distinction for international relations in that it marks the difference between domestic politics and international politics that is not only territorial but also social. “Inside” denotes safety, law, and sovereignty, while “outside” marks danger, violence, and anarchy.
Not surprisingly, the answer to whether walls are in fact effective depends very much on whom you ask and what they are meant to do.
“Walls are not effective at stopping a