WALL and PEACE

“Good fences make good neighbors”—so goes the proverb. But what makes a good fence? Certainly not one that prevents neighbors from being seen in the first place. Indeed, such divisive barriers create enemies. Peace starts where walls fall, not where they are erected. The Berlin Wall is the best proof of that, says Kai Wiedenhöfer, who witnessed its fall first hand. Wiedenhöfer has photographed separation barriers throughout the world, from Berlin in 1989, to Belfast, Mexico, Ceuta and Melilla, Baghdad—and frequently in Israel, to document the walls with which the country has so comprehensively surrounded itself: at the borders to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Egypt and Lebanon. Between 2003 and 2018 he made ten journeys to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to photograph the fences, walls and checkpoints which the Israeli government is still building. Wiedenhöfer has documented the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over three decades now. His new photos show that the hope of lasting peace in the region is becoming ever more unrealistic in our time. For a wall is a paradox: it intensifies the very violence it seeks to keep in check, and thereby makes further surveillance and fortifications necessary.