Photo/Illutration A separation wall in Bethlehem in the West Bank of the Palestinian territory in August 2023 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

My attention has been focused on Gaza since October of last year, but I recently realized that conditions in the other Palestinian territory of the West Bank are just as dire.

A primary school has been razed to the ground by heavy machinery. A family, whose home was destroyed, moved into a ruins-like cave where their ancestors had lived.

It is said that Israeli troops and Israeli settlers have escalated violence in the West Bank.

Journalist Yasunori Kawakami, 68, an expert in the Middle East who was there this past summer, is currently holding a screening in Tokyo of a documentary film titled “‘Kabe’ no Soto to Uchi” (Outside and inside the “wall”).

The screening has been held four times to date, but he said many people were apparently shocked to see “the routine life of Palestinians” for the first time.

Israeli settlements are continuing to expand in the southern part of the West Bank, where the Israeli Army has a live fire practice range.

In the film, a young Palestinian shepherd, a resident, recounts in a matter-of-fact tone how he lost his right hand from touching a leftover Israeli explosive.

“This is our land,” say the Palestinians, and they continue to live there.

Once you come to know the reality of life in the West Bank, you begin to feel that the Israelis, who continue their acts of destruction in Gaza, want to eliminate not only Hamas, but also unarmed Palestinian civilians.

The international community condemns the Israeli occupation policy and expansion of its settlements as violations of international law, but the administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pays no heed.

Kawakami noted that the enormous “wall of separation” erected by Israel is a “wall that blocks consciousness.”

It was built as a “defense against terrorism,” but has now become a tool for concealing an “inconvenient reality” from the Israeli people, he added.

The film also introduces Israelis who crossed the wall. Their attempt to create a “small peace” through their friendships with Palestinians gives me a glimpse of what may be a faint ray of light.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 23

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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