A game of voleyball on the USA-Mexico border, 1979.

Alex Webb

Egypt has begun constructing a huge metal wall along its border with the Gaza Strip as it attempts to cut smuggling tunnels, the BBC has learned.

When it is finished the wall will be 10-11km (6-7 miles) long and will extend 18 metres below the surface.

The Egyptians are being helped by American army engineers, who the BBC understands have designed the wall.

Buy American – bury people alive. Could there be a better way to spend money to integrate Palestine into the modern world than building an 18m deep impenetrable metal wall? What amazes me is the idea behind the wall, which  potentially is a deeper way to dig people in physically and psychologically, by isolating every possible aspect of their life. Instead of building a visible barrier, build a psychological one, one that leaves an individual or a complete culture completely helpless. It does not matter whether you smuggle goods in an out of the country, you are boxing people in who are able to escape their horrible, shitty lives. Could you grant that to a Palestinian? Next – laser shields protecting or isolating a particular nation out of fear.

Not to mention, great job on selling an idea for a  creepy metal product to a country with one of the world’s worst human rights records. Palestine – the World’s Gulag. I am not a proponent of Palestinian extremism, but I don’t believe in isolating a populace of a state by an iron box – I think it is one of the worst historical mistakes we should have learned from by now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8405020.stm