You can’t smell it, touch it, or see it, but Israel’s Green Line does exist, and for a few hours last week, the post-independence boundary between Israel and the West Bank was colored a rich, verdant green.
On Wednesday, June 5th, the 46th anniversary of the Six-Day War, an Israeli activist group called “All That’s Left” distributed flyers stating that the “erasure of the Green Line is wrong and dangerous because it hides the reality of occupation,” and decided to take matters into their own hands. So they literally redrew the Green Line in front of the Jerusalem municipal government, with paint, on butcher paper.
Though the Green Line is the only border recognized by the international community, Israeli construction and settlement atop and beyond it have rendered the boundary essentially invisible. “All That’s Left,” a name that conveys the group’s frustration that so many Israelis have given up hope for—and work toward—a negotiated solution, seeks to raise awareness of the entrenched political situation, and mobilize toward change. No matter which side of the line you stand on, a stripe of green running through the center of town was a pretty cool site to see.
