"If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate ... open this gate ... tear down this wall,” said former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in June 1987, addressing Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Now, unfortunately, the United States is following the footsteps of apartheid South Africa and Israel by building separation walls in war-torn Iraq. The U.S. army claims that such barriers can reduce sectarian tensions and protect Iraqi citizens. But the Americans have ignored the fact that separation policies are destined to fail because such walls would further widen the sectarian gap between Iraq’s Sunnis and Shias.
Almost all Iraqi politicians, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, criticized the U.S. decision to build a 12-foot-high wall in the Adhamiya district, one of the last remaining Sunni neighborhoods in mostly Shia eastern Baghdad. Both Sunni and Shias protested against the barrier that was also denounced by the Iraqi Islamic Party, a major Sunni political organization.
Many Iraqis are suffering from the wall, particularly Sunnis residing in Adhamiya, who are imprisoned in their neighborhood. Um Haider, a 54-year-old housewife from inside the cordon, branded the barrier a weird idea. "I'm astonished by the way officials think. Is that reasonable? Protecting al-Adhamiyah by segregating it from adjacent neighborhoods?" she asked. "Erecting concrete walls between neighborhoods is not a solution to the collapse in security and the rampant violence. If so, Baghdadis would find themselves in a maze of high walls overnight.”
Even though the U.S. claims that the wall would be temporary, many Iraqis are wary about the possibility of it becoming permanent. Some Iraqis say nostalgia for a united Iraq, plus a suspicion that the U.S. intends to divide and conquer, erodes whatever security benefits the wall's proponents think it might bring. "It appears that partitioning through federalism will divide not only Iraq but also Baghdad," said 29-year-old Ali Ibrahim, referring to moves in parliament to split Iraq into three or more autonomous regions.
Despite the rejection and the condemnation of the Adhamiya wall, a group of Iraqi artists decided to beautify what’s being compared by the Iraqi press to Israel’s “apartheid wall” enclosing Palestinian territory.
Baquir Al-Sheikh leads a team of 40 artists to paint half a mile stretch of protective walls with murals of colorful desert landscapes and proud moments in the Iraqi history. "For four years now, we've done nothing…. This way, at least we're doing something. We can't remove those walls anytime soon. We may as well try to beautify them,” Al-Sheikh told USA Today.
“We want people to feel their environment, to remember their history. Hopefully it will remind some people that there is good news in this country, not all bad,” he adds.
Al-Sheikh’s attempts to bring life to Iraqis by beatifying the separation barrier started when he heard of an international non-profit group looking for artists to paint the wall with one color. But the enthusiastic artist suggested that they turn the barrier into a piece of art. The organization then provided Al-Sheikh with USD 10,000 to start working on the wall with a team of artists, who called their group “Jidar”, the Arabic word for “wall”.
Iraqis are certainly in need for a positive boost and some joy in their life and Al-Sheikh hopes that he can turn the walls that are alleged to be protecting civilians from rebel attacks into something beautiful. His ambitious plan and the furore over the barriers indicate that many Iraqis yearn for a united Iraq.
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