Comments on: Podcast: +972 bloggers explore Israeli walls and borders

By: Greg Pollock

Greg Pollock — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 00:55:11 +0000

A very belated comment. Since the security boarder is porus at several locations, the logic of terrorism (especially the suicide bombings) implicitly embraced by the Wall must be wanting. And that is a very good thing.
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The Wall ossifies a view of terrorism which has political value within the Israeli polity. That is, what the Wall represents is a political good, preserved within political discourse. I think the race riot in South Tel Aviv suggests a generalization of that discourse: “infiltrators” means “unpure,” “different,” unwilling to conform.

By: niz

niz — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 09:34:05 +0000

The Levant can never be broken. I know the Israelis hate the Arabs and display great xenophobic attitudes towards their neighbors, but this geography was always connected. South of Lebanon was the country side of Haifa, in the same way North Lebanon was part of the country side of Homs. These borders were created against the cultural and social evolution of the Levantine families and societies and hence they are unsustainable. You can dream, but the Jews are like Arabs were before the state and will stay long after the state…so fuck borders. I don’t want to kick Israelis but I don’t want them to kick me out …and I want to be able to go to Yafa and Haifa with no passport..and that is only fair and just!

By: John

John — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:38:30 +0000

Excellent podcast. But please make available via iTunes so I can listen on my way to work

By: Yuval Ben-Ami

Yuval Ben-Ami — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 06:10:35 +0000

Right you are, and I make a remark to this effect on the podcast, stating that I learned while on the road that even our old, no longer acknowledged “officially recognized borders” were never officially recognized. I hope you can see enough into the Israeli soul to understand our need for defined borders. As the UN resolution borders you mention were never functional borders, the search continues, and I can only hope our true borders are to be defined in the future.

By: Richard SM

Richard SM — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 23:53:20 +0000

“Yuval Ben-Ami set out to explore the State of Israel’s first border – the 1949 armistice lines”
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Israel’s first border, and as far as I know *only* legally recognized border, is that set out in UN Resolution 181 in 1947 – as accepted by Israel in its declaration of independence in May ’48, reaffirmed in its application for UN membership. The armistice lines aren’t borders as the agreements make clear.