Olmert in China, Between Two Walls, Israeli Barrier…Chinese Wall

Friday, January 12,2007 00:00

By Ezzat Shahrour, Aljazeera

The Visit of the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, to the Great Wall of China was paid before meeting his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jia Bao, probably to indicate a similarity of ideas and to make use of the Chinese expertise in Israel’s building its barrier fence.
China seems to have been aware of Olmert’s political targets behind his tourist visit; so, the Chinese Foreign Ministry insisted that Olmert’s visit to the Great Wall be carried out before holding the official welcome ceremony so that this appears to be a personal activity from the Israeli guest, not a part of his official program.

Chinese Wisdom
Olmert’s attempt to link between both walls wasn’t the first; his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, did so before him when the Israeli barrier was still under construction, and China’s then Prime Minister, Gu Rung Gi responded with a Chinese wisdom and a clear diplomatic cleverness that " Our Wall was been built on Chinese lands, while you are building your barrier on territories belonging to others".
The Chinese veteran diplomat added to his Israeli guest that:" The real security during the age of planes and intercontinental ballistic missiles will not be achieved through building barrier fences and walls but with building bridges of confidence and peace among peoples".
However, the Israelis did not listen to the Chinese advice as usual and continued building their barrier even with using thousands of Chinese workers who illegally flocked to Israel under hard working conditions and with violating worker’s rights and some of them were killed amid the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
This is actually true, the Great Wall of China was built on Chinese territories while the Israeli barrier swallows hundreds of Palestinian villages and agricultural lands; China’s Wall links between the sea and the desert while the Israeli barrier separates between a man and another, between the earth and the sky, between the child and his school and between worker and his work place.

A fence and a wall
The Chinese built their Great Wall to protect their land and civilization from invasion and occupation while the Israelis build their barrier on remains of civilizations and archeological sites to establish invasion and occupation.
The Chinese built their Great Wall to stop wars while the Israelis are building it for launching wars and aggressions.
Standing on the Great Wall of China means that you stand on it and give your back to the past and look forward to the future, while the Israeli ferroconcrete barrier means a deadlock in front of the future and taking a fake history as a shield.
Thus, millions of people come every year from all over the world to visit of Great Wall of China while thousands come to demonstrate in front of the Israeli separation barrier; also, NOGs are formed and international organizations intervene to protect the Great Wall of China while International Courts organizations recognize that the Israeli barrier fence is illegal.
The Chinese repeat this saying " the one who hasn’t climbed the Great Wall of China isn’t great" to every guest who visits the Great Wall, but a few of the foreigners understood and realized this wisdom, to the extent that some of them misunderstood it, like the ex-Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani when he responded to his Chinese hosts, saying " It is very easy for any one to be great here".
The Chinese might have smiled or nodded at that day, acknowledging among themselves that it is difficult for these coming from the Middle East to understand the difference between greatness and force.. This is the meeting point between Raphsengani and Olmert or, in general, between Israel and Iran that Olmert came to persuade the Chinese of the danger of its nuclear program on his country.
It is a chance for the Chinese to respond to the Israeli guest with what his security barrier benefitted him if he can’t protect his country from any threat, or the Chinese may add other sentences and explanations to their well-known maxim " Every one who hasn’t climbed the Great Wall of China isn’t great" like " Not every one who climbed the Great Wall of China is great" or " Not all walls are great".