University of Puerto Rico

Río Piedras Campus

Department of General Studies

Segregation Walls

INGL 3152-008

Dr. Lillian Sanchez

Ricardo Acevedo

Chantal Colon

Usama Hamid

Melanie Vignau

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I. Segregation Walls

- Alienation

- Types of walls

- Consequences and benefits of walls

- Walls from around the world

II. Case Study

A. The Berlin Wall

B. West Bank Barrier

C. North-South Korean Wall

III. Outcome

- Summary

- Opinion

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I. Walls of Segregation:

We can define the term wall of segregation as a wall or fence constructed to limit the movement of

people across a certain line or border, or to separate two sectors of a population. It is used as a way to alienate

people and has been proven to promote discrimination of race, religion, social status, among other reasons.

Some of them are located in China, Berlin, Palestine, Mexico, etc… The types of walls include lifestyle; which

divides resort villages or urbanizations. The second type is security zone, which its main purpose is to separate

two villages with a great feud. It reflects fear involving gates or fences on public streets with limited access, for

example The West Bank Barrier. The last one is protection, these walls are made in order to protect the country

and its inhabitants, as an example we can say The Great Wall of China when it was built.

The only positive aspect about the walls of segregation is the fact that they could eliminate or diminish

the possibilities of a warfare that could happen because of arguments of borders. History shows that building

walls rarely solves conflicts or guarantees security. Also the barrier embodies long-term and severe restrictions

on the movement that causes harm to the lives of tens of thousands of civilians who are limited by these walls.

In the case of the West Bank Barrier, which will be talked about in detail later, there is limited access to

people who wish to cross the wall but these restrictions endanger Palestinians' access to basic services like

education and medical care, and in many cases to land, jobs, and other means of livelihood. The Israeli

government has failed to demonstrate that it could not adopt less intrusive and less restrictive alternatives to

address the security of civilians, including a barrier contiguous with the 1949 Armistice Line, commonly

known as the Green Line.  Teachers in the Rantis village became unable to reach their schools due to the

village isolation caused by the Wall, and schools are only opened few days a week. Students are facing daily

humiliations committed by the Israeli soldiers guarding the military gate. Such measures have caused daily

delays for both students and teachers who find themselves forced to wait in rows and for a long period of time. 

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 The villages' clinics are closed and the medical crews cannot reach them. They need to coordinate first

with the relevant Israeli authorities before being allowed to enter the village. This in turn opposes their work in

the village and blocks the process of supplying the village with medical services.

To fully understand the concept of segregation walls the following case studies have been taken from

different time periods and all have different circumstances for their creation. Some have been taken down

while others are still being built today. The consequences seem to outweigh the benefits when talking about

segregation walls.

Case Study:

The Berlin Wall

The construction of the the Berlin Wall started in August 13, 1961. It was a move by the

German Democratic Republic (GDR) to stop East Berliners from escaping the Soviet-controlled

East German state into the West of the city, which was then occupied by the Americans, British

and French. By 1961 an estimated 1,500 people a day flew to the West and soon rumors began to

spread about a wall, and it wasn’t long after that those rumors were real. 

The streets of Berlin were torn up, stones were put up, tanks were placed at crucial places

and subways and local railway services were interrupted in just 24 hours, so that within a day

West Berlin was completely sealed off from the East. As of that same day inhabitants of East

Berlin and the GDR were no longer allowed to enter West Berlin. In response to international

criticism that such drastic measures inevitably drew, the GDR claimed that the barricade had

been raised as an anti-fascist protection wall, and that they had moved to prevent a third world

war. (

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 A concrete wall was added in 1965 and it was the final and most completed version of the

Wall. It was made from 45,000 separate sections of reinforced concrete, each 3.6 m high and 1.5

m wide, intended to make it more difficult for escapers to come across it.

Despite the various security measures enforced, escape attempts were common, especially in

the years immediately following the building of the wall, when there was still a fighting chance

of making it across alive. Climbing was one of the ways to go and some 5,000 were said to have

reached the other side. However in its thirty year history 100 people were shot dead, most

famously the eighteen year old Peter Fetcher, who, after he was hit in the hip, was left to bleed to

death in a prohibited territory as the world’s media looked. As security tightened, more creative

escape plans became the order of the day. Tunnels were built and were more successful ways of

getting to the West. For those who were unable or to leave the East, things were very difficult;

and things only continued to get worse throughout the 70s and 80s as Communism and the USSR

began to collapse.

As the Iron Curtain cracked the fall of the wall looked inevitable. In the evening of

November 9th, 1989 Gunter Schabowski, Minister of Propoganda, read out a note at a press

conference announcing that the border would be opened for "private trips abroad”. The news

spread very fast and the German people immediately gathered demanding passage. The Wall had

fallen. 

Case Study:

North Korean and South Korean Armistice Line

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 The Military Demarcation Line, which is also called the Armistice Line, is a dividing line

between North and South Korea that is constantly guarded on both sides by military officials.

The dispute between north and south began a long time before the actual wall was built. In

World War II when Japan was defeated --Japan controlled Korea’s military-- the troops in the

north surrendered to the Soviets and the south had to surrender to the United Sates.

Although there were attempts to unify Korea it ended up in failures and in 1948 two

separate nations were made. To the north there is the Democratic Republic of North Korea and to

the south there is the Republic of Korea. After military invasions from the north and the Korean

War in 1953 the wall/ border was built. Dividing the north from the south it reaches 151 miles

and is still carefully watched from both sides by the military (PBS, 2005).

There was never an official peace treaty signed and there is still a possibility of new

conflicts. The wall has been there for half a century and is still dividing two nations that were

once a whole. In the documentary “Access to Evil” we briefly see how different these two

nations have become. The south has adapted many of the American ideals and is now is run by a

capitalist government which has many similarities to the United States government (BBC, 2004).

The north has remained a socialist government with a strict set of rules and regulations

and has become closed of from the rest of the world. These two nations that were once one have

become distant and now are completely different. Political animosity led these two nations to

built a wall of segregation that in the end divided them so greatly and now you can barely see a

resemblance between the two.

Case Study:

West Bank Barrier, Israel

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 The west Bank Barrier is a segregation wall being built to isolate Israel from Palestine.

The wall consists of networks of fences, trenches rolls of razor wire and a four-meter-deep

ditches placed on one side surrounded by an on average 60 meters wide exclusion area and high

concrete walls up to 8 meters high. In addition, the structure also supports electronic sensors

around its perimeter that can detect heat and movement. The Israeli government has already built

more than half of the planned 703-kilometer wall by august 2008. Construction is still in

progress even though Palestinian and Israeli peace activists have protested heavily against the

project the wall has also been criticized by the International Court of Justice and the U.N

regarding the legality of the construction.

The construction of the wall has been approved by Israel to minimize terrorists from

entering Israeli lands, a problem which has plagued Israel since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

A secondary purpose of the barrier is to prevent illegal infiltrations by Palestinians, mainly

illegal immigrants and car thieves. The Israeli Government says that the high concrete portions

are to protect cars and people on the Israeli side from gunfire. Palestinians and many other

opponents of the barrier suspect that the security explanation is only an excuse for a geographical

containment of the Palestinians in order to pave the way for an expansion of Israeli sovereignty.

Israel's critics say the plan highlights everything that is wrong with Israel's occupation of

Palestinian land and its approach to making peace with its Arab neighbors. Palestinian land is

confiscated to build the barrier; hundreds of Palestinian farmers and traders are cut off from their

land and means of economic survival. In an interview, Mahmoud Abdel-Rahman lets us see the

personal opinions of the people that have been there when he states “Segregation walls limit

people and their freedoms, I have personally witnessed the west bank barrier and I can say that it

is sad to see the extremely long lines of people waiting to cross just to work, go to school and

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 even receive medical attention. I even got to see people being denied access because of

checkpoint guards did not want us to cross.”

Court challenges have been made to the barrier both internationally and in Israel itself.

The International Court of Justice ruled against the barrier in July 2004, saying that it breaches

international law and should be dismantled. Civil rights groups have meanwhile gone to Israel's

Supreme Court questioning the principle of building the barrier on occupied land and the

restrictions it imposes on the Palestinians in the West Bank. Israel rejected the World Court

ruling, saying Israel does have the right to build the barrier on occupied West Bank land.

III. Outcome

Even if we are in the 21rst century there seems to be no awareness of the negative aspects

these walls have on people. In a highly globalized world there should be no borders or lines that

are controlled by government with military supervision. The world is full of people that have

every right to communicate among themselves and a right to move freely to wherever they

please. Segregations walls have been used for many years and it is time to eliminate such walls,

unite the people and form one world of complete understanding and communication. We are all

humans no mater if you are a communist, socialist or believe in democracy. We as a group feel

that it is time, like the Berlin Wall, to break down these walls of discrimination and unite

families and communities of the world.

Bibliography

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- Abdel- Rahman, Mahmoud (2010, April 3). Business owner. Interview

- Berlin Wall. (2010). In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved March 28, 2010, from Encyclopedia
Britannica.

- Frankiel, O. (Producer). (2004). Access to Evil [Motion Picture].

- Ires do Rio Caldeira, Teresa. "City of walls: crime, segregation, and citizenship in São Paulo ".
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- Jennings, Conor ."The Benefits of Segregated Portfolio Insurance". Caledonian Insurance Services
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