The Little Boy and the Barred Window

The little boy peered out from the barred window on a street that now stands deserted.

This is Hebron and we are in an area where the divisiveness of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is starkly apparent. 

Our visit is punctuated by three things – the suspicion and then the slow thawing of attitude of the Israeli soldiers guarding the street, the Israeli louts (in Australia we call them “hoons”) who roared past in a car threatening to run us down, flipping us the double “bird” in the process; and the bluntness of the sign that said:

The sign is a timely reminder to us all that there are two sides to the Israel-Palestine conflict. As we walk past the boarded up houses there is an eerie, unnerving silence. At the end of the road is an Israeli guard station with a soldier warily looking on as we take photos.

This street more than anything else on the trip symbolized for me how deeply this land is divided.

Both sides have crafted a narrative of being the oppressed not the oppressor and both sides have legitimate historical claims to the land. Those histories and claims are irreconcilable.  Palestine and Israel can only move forward by forgiving the past (as hard as that is) and focusing on finding ways to live side by side in prosperity and harmony – and maybe, just maybe the little boy behind the barred window might have a brighter, better future than he seems destined to have.