The fall of a wall

August 15, 2010 - 9:23 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, Politics, War 

Removing the Gilo barrier. (Photo: Ynet/Noam Moskowitz)

It may not be as dramatic as the Berlin Wall coming down, but for anyone who was in Israel during the years of the Second Intifada at the beginning of the 2000s, the dismantling of the concrete barrier that has separated the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo from the nearby village of Beit Jalla is indeed a big deal.

The Palestinian village was basically taken over by terror organizations who muscled into homes and used the vantage point to launch barrages of missiles and sniper fire on the Israeli neighborhood over a period of several months, causing death and destruction.

The IDF erected a barrier consisting of 800 concrete plates to prevent the sniper fire, and it’s remained in place ever since, even though there has been little violence in the ensuing years. This week, the residents of Gilo are beginning a new chapter as the IDF has started dismantling the concrete plates, a project that is estimated to take about two weeks.

Yediot Aharonot spoke to some of the residents of the neighborhood’s
Ha’anafah Street, which suffered the most attacks. And they had mixed feelings about the wall finally coming down.

“To be honest, I’m a little scared, I just hope its not an opening for something bad; that they’ll see the walls coming down and it will start all over again,” said Ester Cohen.

Cohen remembers the frightening time 10 years ago, “I live in the same house since the shootings, and it was a very difficult experience. I have a disabled daughter, and she would enter a trance of fear, screaming and shouting. There is still a little trauma. I am not completely okay with them taking it down, but I hope it signifies the start of an age of sanity. I would like to feel that I live in a sane place, like anywhere else.”

Maybe the removal of the concrete barrier separating Gilo and Beit Jalla will be the beginning of that age of sanity.

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Just another ghost in the Wall

July 15, 2009 - 9:08 AM by · 6 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, coexistence, General, Technology 

A poster for ther G.ho.st launch on the security barrier near Beit Jallah. (AP)

A poster for ther G.ho.st launch on the security barrier near Beit Jallah. (AP)

The security barrier is on lots of peoples’ minds lately – first it was the Cellcom ad, and now it’s a new Internet startup G.ho.st, launched last night by an Israeli entrepreneur and Palestinian software developers.

For this startup, the product may be less important than the people who created it.
According to the Associated Press, Israeli entrepreneur Zvi Schreiber partnered with Palestinian engineers to launch G.ho.st Virtual Computer, a Web-based operating system based in Jerusalem and Ramallah that recreates the attributes of a personal computer’s desktop from any computer with an Internet connection.

“Our idea is simply to use the Internet to give people a computing environment that is not just stored on a physical device, but is available on a Web page or any mobile device and gives you everything you need: your desktop, your files, your programs,” G.ho.st CEO Schreiber said at the launch, in the West Bank town of Beit Jalla, close to Jerusalem’s southern edge.

The company started more than three years ago after Schreiber sold his second high tech startup. He had never worked with Palestinians and knew very little about the fledgling software industry in the West Bank.

“I wanted to combine my technological interests with my social interests. I always wanted to do something to help resolve the complete mess that we’ve all made of this part of the world,” he said.

According to Schreiber, the company’s name refers not only to the virtual computer’s ability to float through the boundaries of a physical computer, but also to the G.ho.st team’s cross-border collaboration.

There’s a Palestinian staff of nearly 30 workers who confer with their Israeli counterparts mostly by video conference. Many of the engineers living in the West Bank aren’t able to get the permits needed to get into Israel, while Israelis are barred from most Palestinian areas in the West Bank due to security concerns. Schreiber has never been to the company’s Ramallah office.

Tuesday’s launch in Beit Jallah was against the backdrop of the security barrier – an intentional decision.

“Ghosts go through walls and the very first wall that G.ho.st goes through is the … wall and fence that Israel is building in the West Bank between itself and the Palestinians and which physically divides the G.ho.st team into two,” the firm’s Web site says.

AP reported that International Mideast peace envoy Tony Blair attended the launch, commended G.ho.st’s initiative and called for more such partnerships across the Israeli-Palestinian divide.

“One thing we know is of course we need a political solution, but we also know it’s not just about politics. It’s about business,” Blair said.

It would be nice if G.ho.st succeeded, not only with its Internet platform, but in forging real ties between people on both sides of the wall.

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