Alain Epp Weaver

By Alain Epp Weaver

"For me, the land is like a child, my child," explains Palestinian farmer Assam Khalid, as he waits for an Israeli soldier to open the gate in the barrier that blocks him from his crops.

Until June 2002, Khalid had free access to his fields, his greenhouses and his olive trees as well as to water wells, all of which sit just outside Jayyous, his his northern West Bank village near Qalqilya.

But today the grim reality for Khalid and other Jayyous farmers is that an Israeli-built barrier--a zone of fences, barbed wire and patrol roads--separates them from their land, some of the most productive in the region.

The Israeli government calls the barrier a security fence necessary to keep out armed attackers.

The 3,000 Palestinian residents of Jayyous, who rely on agriculture for their livelihood, view it as yet another attempt by Israel to take their ancestral land.

by Alain Epp Weaver

A viable two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is dying; perhaps it is already dead. This reality should prompt new theological and political analysis among Christians and others who yearn for justice, peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis.