37 Years After the Berlin Wall Fell, Israel's Separation Wall Still Divides the West Bank

Thirty-seven years ago today, on 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. On that same date, Palestinians have marked an international day of action against Israel's separation wall since 2003 — a wall more than four times as long as the Berlin Wall and still being built.

East Germany built the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stop its citizens fleeing to the West. The 155km wall divided the city and its people for 28 years.

Israel began building its separation wall in 2002. Planned to stretch 712km, it runs deep inside Palestinian territory rather than along the boundary with Israel. In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled it illegal.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), about 456km, or 64 percent, of the planned route had been built by April. About 85 percent of it runs inside the West Bank rather than along the Green Line, the 1949 armistice line separating Israel from the West Bank.

In urban areas, its concrete rises to about 9 metres, more than twice the height of Berlin's wall. Elsewhere, it is made up of fences, patrol roads, ditches and other security infrastructure.

But the wall is more than a physical structure. It operates alongside a wider network of checkpoints, roadblocks, gates and permits that restricts Palestinian movement across the occupied territory.

More than 14,000 Palestinians live between the wall and the Green Line in an area known as the Seam Zone. To reach basic services, markets and relatives on the other side, they must pass through checkpoints.

Farmers are among the hardest hit. According to OCHA, about 150 Palestinian communities have land in this area. Reaching it depends on permits, prior coordination with Israeli authorities and access through designated agricultural gates. There are about 62 such gates along the wall, and most stay closed for much of the year. During the 2025 olive harvest, 74 percent opened only on a limited number of days.

In Qalqiliya, the wall wraps around much of the city, cutting it off from nearby Palestinian communities and the land around it. Journeys to neighbouring towns that were once short can now mean passing through checkpoints or taking long detours.

The wall is only one part of a much wider network restricting Palestinian movement across the West Bank. As of December, OCHA documented 925 checkpoints, road gates, earth mounds and other obstacles across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. They include 89 permanently staffed checkpoints, 218 partial checkpoints, 232 road gates, 167 earth mounds, 114 linear closures and 105 roadblocks.

Checkpoints and road gates now make up nearly 60 percent of these obstacles, up from 15 percent two decades ago, when temporary blockages such as earth mounds and roadblocks were far more common.

Crossing the wall itself requires permits. Of its 13 checkpoints, only three can be used by Palestinians with West Bank IDs and Israeli-issued permits to enter East Jerusalem and Israel. OCHA said these permits are hard to get and many have been revoked or suspended since the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel and the start of Israel's war on Gaza in October 2023.

These obstacles restrict the movement of about 3.4 million Palestinians, often forcing long detours to reach work, school, hospitals and other services.

For Palestinians, the comparison with Berlin carries a message. 'It doesn't matter how high the barriers will be, they will fall,' a Palestinian activist in Bir Nabala told Al Jazeera. 'Like the Berlin Wall fell, the Palestinian wall will fall.' The wall's impact cannot be measured by distance alone. It is measured in the farmland farmers struggle to reach, the communities cut off from nearby towns and the checkpoints between people and the places they need to go.