I don't completely understand the status of East Jerusalem. We stayed at an Arab-owned hotel in what we were told was East Jerusalem, but we were on the west side of the infamous Wall. If I'm understanding the story correctly, Israel "annexed" the portion of East Jerusalem that is west of the Wall - and this is valuable commercial property. I'm wondering if the Arabs living there became Israeli citizens. The Wall is 708 kilometres (440 mi) long. Along its length, it cuts off various Palestinian enclaves and denies 25,000 Palestinians access to Palestine.

It is true that before the Wall was built, Jewish Israelis did have reason to fear suicide bombers, especially in Jerusalem. Suicide bombings were a frequent occurrence, and the number of suicide bombings has dwindled to almost nothing. But in building the Wall, the Israelis did not take the needs of Palestinians into consideration, and that's a major injustice.

And then there's Gaza. The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated places in the world. It is 41 kilometers (25 mi) long, and from 6 to 12 kilometers (3.7 to 7.5 mi) wide, with a total area of 365 square kilometers (141 sq mi). That's about twice the size of the Sea of Galilee, and a little bit smaller than Lake Tahoe in California - with a population of 1.85 million. It has a border with Egypt that is 11 kilometers (6.8 mi) long, and it has been able to get supplies from Egypt off and on - mostly off, I understand. Otherwise, its other land borders are adjacent to Israel, and Israel currently does allow Gaza to import non-military goods through Israel. Its Mediterranean coastline is 40 kilometers (25 mi).

There is a small resort, Al-Bustan on the beach north of Gaza City. Between 1967 and 2005, Israel established 21 settlements in Gaza, comprising 20% of the total territory. I'm imagining that these Jewish "settlements" were ritzy seaside condominium complexes like I saw all around the Palestinian territory outside Jerusalem. In 2005, Israel evicted all 9,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza and abandoned its efforts to occupy the Gaza Strip. Gaza is not far from Tel Aviv, and short-range missiles have occasionally been fired from Gaza into the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

I didn't get a chance to visit Gaza, so all I know is what I read. Gaza does show signs of progress, however. Th literacy rate is very high, and there are college level schools in the Gaza Strip.

I've said this before, and some people have scoffed. But I think it's important to realize that more and more, Palestininians are becoming proud of their nation and its ability to continue existing and growing in defiance of all efforts by Israel to control it.

My sister has hosted a number of Palestinian exchange students in Wisconsin, and I have met at least two or three of them. These are good kids, and they're smart, and they're proud of Palestine and defiant against Israel.

-Joe-

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This looks like an interesting article from the Jerusalem Post: Living in Jerusalem Behind the Wall. It's an interesting article, and the photos are especially disturbing. I thought I hadn't seen the refugee camps, but our bus drove right past the Qalandiya camp on the highway to Tel Aviv just west of Jerusalem, and through the neighborhood described in the article. We couldn't see much. It was a crowded area, and there was a big prison adjacent to the military checkpoint we went through. Our guide said the prison was for Arab political prisoners.