Re: Decades after Berlin, other walls still divide us, Nov. 13

As a former Carleton journalism student and Centretown News editor, I read Ian Shelton’s "Viewpoint"with great interest.

Mr. Shelton’s false and misleading analogy likening Israel’s defensive security barrier (built to keep Palestinian terrorists “out” of the Jewish state), with the Berlin Wall (built to keep the population “in” the Communist state) falls flat for several reasons.

To recall: on Nov. 9, 1989, thousands of East Germans proceeded to the Berlin Wall to destroy and cross what was an oppressive concrete barrier in pursuit of new found freedom.

The Berlin Wall was built during the height of the Cold War by the East German authoritarian regime to perpetuate the division of the city by keeping the German citizens of East Berlin – who sought only freedom and communication with their German brethren in West Berlin – hemmed in.

Unlike that wall, Israel’s security barrier does not seek to divide one people and curtail freedoms.

Rather, it aims to separate two peoples who are in conflict, to prevent suicide bombers from targeting innocent civilians and to create a terror-free environment in which the two sides can move towards a peaceful settlement.

Israel estimates that the barrier has successfully thwarted 90 per cent of attempted terror attacks and has publicly proclaimed that the barrier would be dismantled when peace and security are achieved –- and the Israeli judiciary has time and again given voice and justice to any party justly aggrieved – weighing all considerations by the barrier.

Mr. Shelton’s promotion of this false analogy only created a barrier for Centretown News readers to properly understand Israel’s security concerns and the raison d’etre for the barrier’s implementation.

Mike Fegelman,
Executive Director,
HonestReporting Canada,
Toronto