A Palestinians point of view

Building started on Israel's controversial wall in 2002 and has been a contentious issue. It's 403 miles in length and 8 meters high and is costing 150 million dollars. Palestinians feel they are locked inside a huge Prison. Israel says they need security. Who's right and who's wrong?

Will the wall bring security? Is this corporate punishment? Paul Calvert spoke with a Palestinian and a Messianic Jew to get two views from two sides of the fence.

Danny Awad is a Pastor of the Baraka Presbyterian church in Bethlehem; he's Palestinian and gives his viewpoint.

Danny: The wall affects the Christian community here in Bethlehem in many ways; the people live from tourism, olive wood factories and so on and since they have built the wall many tourists have stopped coming altogether into Bethlehem. The tourists don't come to the souvenir shops so there is no income for the Palestinian people and even the Christians here have stopped working in Jerusalem because they are not allowed to pass the check point unless they have permission.

Paul: Do Palestinians feel like the wall is corporate punishment?

Danny: Well it is, it's a punishment for the whole nation. Separation builds hatred between the two nations.

Paul: Now the Christian community is shrinking here, why is that?

Danny: Well for many reasons. As I mentioned, for the Christians their income is from the tourists, secondly they have no work, they have no security here from the occupation and the wall. Many people from my church they immigrate to Europe and America seeking for a better life and a better income and the other thing, the Christians here are the forgotten church. They are forgotten from the western world. Many tourists come and visit the dead stones, the churches, the old places, but none of them are coming to visit the living stone who are the Christians, the true people, the true Christians of this country.

Paul: Do you think the wall will save lives on the Israel side?

Danny: That's what the Israeli's used to say but not any more; we can see the problems going on inside the wall, sometimes the suicide bombers, these things happened inside of Israel. It will not stay safe for them because they are building the wall in the Palestinian side, which is building more hatred between the generations; it will continue more and more even inside the wall inside Israel too.

Paul: How has the wall affected the attitudes of the believers inside your congregation?

Danny: Well let me say before I say about my church members, let me say about me, about 3 months ago I received a phone call from a brother in the hospital in Jerusalem asking me to come and pray for him, I told him on the phone I am very sorry I cannot come because I don't have the permission to go to Jerusalem even though it's only 7km away. So what I did was call one minister in Jerusalem and asked him to go and pray for one of my church members who were dying there in hospital with Cancer.

Even for the believers they are facing the problems. They used to have work in Jerusalem; since the wall was built they cannot go to Jerusalem. Now they are left without work or without a job and another thing, the communication between the Christians from Bethlehem and in Jerusalem or inside Israel, let me say 80% has stopped. Only on the phone or in the E-mail we can talk to one another.

Paul: So as a Pastor how do you deal with this situation because you're going through the many difficulties that your congregation is going through as well?

Danny: Well in many ways the most thing is to pray for them and encourage them to stay in the land and encourage them in many ways. Of course we cannot encourage them 100% to stay here with a good income and everything because we cannot offer these things, but the biggest thing we do is pray for them, encourage them in our sermons, our preaching and Bible study, visitations and tell them to stay here in this country and pray for one another. It's a persecution not because of our faith but it's for the whole nation.