Selections from the Visitors' Book

Compiled on August 29, 2004 by Csaba Szilagyi.
Note: entries translated from Hungarian are marked with (T).

"Good idea, interesting layout, without the more profound context." (T)

"I have no idea what are you trying to communicate with this exhibition; it's not art, it's not aesthetic and certainly is not clever. One thing is for sure: HYPOCRITE! I wonder where were people like those in charge of this 'fiasco-like-righteousness' in your country in 1944?"

"Dear OSA, I would like to see similarly interesting pictures from other parts of the world, too, okay? What about the wall between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Pakistan and India/Kashmir, around Moroccan enclaves (Melilla, Ceuta) in Spain, as well as the walls dividing Cyprus and Belfast. What about them, when are you planning an 'exhibit' about them, of course only if it is 'objective' and 'balanced'... Well, there's deep silence about them, while it is perfectly 'kosher' to speak about the Israeli wall..." (T)

"Euphemistically speaking, the exhibit is biased. While on one side we see people suffering in the shadow of arms or of the wall, on the other side we are shown only construction workers building the fence and soldiers. Not a single face, not a single picture of the attacks which made the construction of this defense system necessary. It is very easy to be humanitarian from peaceful and cozy Europe, the situation on the spot is totally different..." (T)

"You have gone through the exhibit superficially. For there are pictures of the horrors and of victims of the terror attacks, too!" (T)

"There's no fence that equals one human life! This fence is meant to save lives! Under the guise of correctness and objectivity, this exhibit makes an incorrect and false case for the security fence. Such an exhibit does more harm..." (T)

"Israel is the Third Reich for the Arabs. Mr. Sharon = Fascist. I don't think that the fence can solve the conflict in the Middle East. This is vain hope for the Jews." (T)

"Thank U very much for the long-awaited objectivity!"

"Thanks for the photo-exhibit. We only hope that it helps those longing for peace from both peoples." (T)

"Wonderful, well-balanced exhibit. Very informative and touching!"

"In the long run, not even the Great Wall of China has fulfilled its mission - albeit that was really meant for defense purposes! The exhibit is professional, but it should be more widely shown, not only within these walls." (T)

"Excellent and thought-provoking exhibit. If it helps the audience realize that there are suffering people longing for peace and a normal life on both sides, it has achieved its goal." (T)

"Too bad that all the captions are in English, so people who don't speak the language shouldn't even bother to come in. I'm not sure if I will ever come back here. I am not that kind of 'tricolor (red-white-green) person', I only like to gather information in my mother tongue." (T)

"Thank you for that amazing work. You have actually demonstrated a lot of what this racist wall is doing in the Occupied Territories of Palestine. I've been suffering from this wall in my daily life, and it means so much to me to know that there are people in another part of the world who do something to end this oppression. Thank you, and all my respect to you. Peace."

"From all points of view, this exhibit is way below anything I have previously seen in the Galeria Centralis. The fact that all the texts are only in English is, call me paranoid, intentional..." (T)

"The exhibit does not reveal why there is terror and why the wall is being erected. The wall is a consequence of terror. Terror has its roots in racism." (T)

"Thank you for the time and effort represented by this so painful exhibit. I sometimes think Israel has forgotten how Jews were treated in 1936-45, else they should not do the same to Palestinians."

"This is an insightful and timely exhibit that calls the viewers' attention to the complexities of such a divide, and the hypocrisy involved in the name of "Security". I would love to see this online or in a book form; it is so much that it requires multiple visits to fully absorb."

"Thank you. All sides got me angry. As an American Jew who works on human rights without color, creed, religion... links with a Muslim family... who has written project proposals for Palestinian causes and fought with my grandmother to explain that Israel is a country and you can be against the actions of a country's government without being anti-Semitic... I am disgusted, disturbed and informed by all I saw. THIS IS NEEDED. PLEASE HAVE THIS TRAVEL."

"It is an impressive work that gives a good idea about the suffering of both two peoples from this separation wall. But we learn from history that walls don't bring security and peace. Mutual understanding and respect and giving rights to the Palestinian people will only bring peace. Thank you."

"The wall is not nice, but it is an effective measure against the killings. It should be dismantled sometime, but first the terror that caused its erection should disappear. (This is simply a matter of due course.) Peace for everybody! Imagine..." (T)

"An extraordinarily balanced tribute to an horrendous form of separation/alienation among humans. May it contribute to greater awareness and, hopefully, a creative solution in then 21st century."

"You have a wonderful exhibition here. Not only because of the pictures and films, but mainly due to the complete, well-balanced research that this must have involved. Congratulations! If there is, by chance, the opportunity of having further contact with you about this project and the subject of research specifically, I would be very thankful. I'm a Mexican student of International Relations and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is my favorite area of interest. Contact between you and my faculty back home would be great. Congratulations once again!"

The Divide: Selected Bibliography:

Behind the Barrier: Human Rights Violations as a Result of Israel’s Separation Barrier. A B’Tselem Position Paper, Jerusalem, 2003.

Disputed Territories: Forgotten Facts about the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel Information Center, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem, 2003.

Facing the Abyss: The Isolation of Sheikh Sa’ad Village – Before and After the Separation Barrier. A B’Tselem Status Report, Jerusalem, 2004.

Health and Segregation: The Impact of the Israeli Separation Wall on access to health care services. Health, Development, Information, and Policy Institute, Ramallah, 2004.

The Impact of Israel’s Separation Barrier on Affected West Bank Communities. Report of the Mission to the Humanitarian and Emergency Group (HEPG) of the Local Aid Coordination Committee (LACC), May 4, 2003.

The Impact of Israel’s Separation Barrier on Affected West Bank Communities. A Follow-up Report to the Humanitarian and Emergency Group (HEPG) of the Local Aid Coordination Committee (LACC), July 31, 2003.

Israel, the Conflict and Peace: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions. Israel Information Center, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem, 2003.

Land Grab: Israel’s Settlement Policy in the West Bank. A B’Tselem Report. Jerusalem, May 2002.

Nu’man, East Jerusalem: Life under the Threat of Expulsion. A B’Tselem Status Report, Jerusalem, 2003.

News from Within: Palestine/Israel, Alternative Information Center, Jerusalem, January-February and March-April 2004.

Not All It Seems: Preventing Palestinians Access to Their Lands West of the Separation Barrier in the Tulkarm-Qalqiliya Area. A B’Tselem Information Sheet, Jerusalem, 2004.

Peace in Brief: A Newsletter. 1998/1, The Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research, Tel Aviv University.

Rabbis for Human Rights: A Newsletter, Jerusalem, April 2003.

Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories. A Bimonthly of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, Washington, D.C., July-August 2002 – January-February 2004.

Saving Lives: Israel’s Anti-Terrorist Fence: Answers to Questions. Israel Information Center, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem, 2004.

Saving Lives: Israel’s Security Fence. Israel Information Center, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem, 2003.

Stop the Wall in Palestine: Facts, Testimonies, Analysis and Call to Action. The Palestinian Environmental NGO’s Network (PENGON), Jerusalem, 2003.

Strategic Assessment: A Quarterly of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv University, February 2004.

Territories: Islands, Camps and Other States of Utopia. KW – Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2003.

Which Came First: Terrorism or “Occupation”? Israel Information Center, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem, 2002.

Adams, Paul: Israel’s line in the sand. The Globe and Mail, February 14, 2004.

Alpher, Yossi: Separation Fences: Israel’s Unilateral Withdrawal Option. In: Expanding the Conversation – A Series by Joesph (Yossi) Alpher, Issue 4. Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York, 2002.

Arian, Asher: Israeli Public Opinion on National Security 2003. Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv University, 2003.

Balslev, Eva and Segal, Sune: Security or Separation? The Humanitarian Consequences of Israel’s Wall of Separation, World Council of Churches, Geneva, 2003.

Ben-David, Dan: Israel’s March of the Lemming… Four articles in the Socio-Economic Roadmap series, The Jerusalem Post, between January 29-February 19, 2004.

Broomfield, Nick: Film festival in a war zone. Interview by Leo Benedictus. The Guardian, July 21, 2004.

D’Amato, Anthony: The West Bank Wall. In: Jurist/Legal Intelligence, March 2004.
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forum/damato1.php

Dayan, Yael: American Jewry, the U.S. and Israel. Israel Horizons, Autumn 2003. Published by Meretz USA, New York.

Dershowitz, Alan: Israel follows its own law, not bigoted Hague decision. The Jerusalem Post, July 11, 2004.

Elon, Amos: Israelis & Palestinians: What Went Wrong? The New York Review of Books, December 19, 2002.

Elon, Amos: War Without End. The New York Review of Books, July 15, 2004.

Galili, Lily: Wailing Wall. Haaretz, January 16, 2004.

Gold, Dore: Defensible Borders for Israel. Jerusalem Viewpoints, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, June 15-July 1, 2003.

Green, David B.: A wall of ambivalence. Prospect Magazine, August 2003.

Judt, Tony: Israel: The Alternative. The New York Review of Books, October 23, 2003.

Kedar, Alexandre (Sandy): On the Legal Geography of Ethnocratic Settler States: Notes Towards A Research Agenda. In: Law and Geography, Oxford University Press, 2003.

Kedar, Alexandre (Sandy): The Legal Transformation of Ethnic Geography: Israeli Law and the Palestinian Landholder 1948-1967. In: Journal of International Law and Politics, New York University, Summer 2001.

Kershner, Isabel: Palestinian Affairs: Zoned Out. The Jerusalem Report Magazine, January 26, 2004.

Klein Halevi, Yossi and Oren, Michael B.: Fantasy. The New Republic, December 15, 2003.

Klein Halevi, Yossi: Fenced In. The New Republic, November 10, 2003.

Klein Halevi, Yossi: The Wall. The New Republic, July 8 & 15, 2002.

Macintyre, Donald: How Sharon’s giant fence broke down the barriers of suspicion. The Independent, March 19, 2004.

Makovsky, David: How to Build A Fence. Foreign Affairs, March-April, 2004.

Newman, David and Yacobi, Haim: The EU and the Israel/Palestine Conflict: An Ambivalent Relationship. Working Paper Series in EU Border Conflicts Studies, January 2004.

Rabinowitz, Dan: Borders and Their Discontents: Israel’s Green Line, Arabness and Unilateral Separation. In: European Studies: A Journal of European Culture, History and Politics, February 3, 2003.

Rappaport, Meron: A Wall in their Heart. Yedioth Ahronth, May 23, 2003.

Rothenberg, Laurence E. and Bell, Abraham: Israel’s Anti-Terror Fence: The World Court Case. Jerusalem Viewpoints, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, February 15, 2004.

Sagie, Uri and Sher, Gilead: Policy Paper on Israeli-Palestinian Separation. The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, July 2002.

Segal, Rafi and Weizman, Eyal (eds.): A Civilian Occupation: The Politics of Israeli Architecture. Babel/Tel Aviv and Verso/London, New York, 2003.

Siegman, Henry: Israel: The Threat from Within. The New York Review of Books, February 26, 2004.

Steinberg, Gerald M.: Unilateral Separation as Roadmap Insurance. Jerusalem Viewpoints, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, August 15, 2003.