Book description
'Good fences make good neighbours, but what about bad ones?'
The Israeli separation barrier is probably the most iconic divider
of land since the Berlin Wall. It has been declared illegal under
international law and its impact on life in the West Bank has been enormous.
Mark Thomas - as only he could - decided the only way to really get
to grips with this huge divide was to use the barrier as a route map,
to 'walk the wall', covering the entire distance with little more in
his armoury than Kendal Mint Cake and a box of blister plasters.
In the course of his ramble he was tear-gassed, stoned, sunburned,
rained on and hailed on and even lost the wall a couple of times. But
thankfully he was also welcomed and looked after by Israelis and
Palestinians - from farmers and soldiers to smugglers and zookeepers -
and finally earned a unique insight of the real Middle East in all its
entrenched and yet life-affirming glory. And all without hardly ever
getting arrested!
Mark Thomas has worked as a comedian for over twenty years. His
activist, campaigning brand of comedy has been a thorn in the side of
many politicians and corporations. However, recently he has been invited
to give evidence at various government select committees. He is one of a
limited number of people to be awarded a UN Global Human Rights Defender
Award and has also been awarded a Kurdish National Congress Medal of
Honour amongst other citations. His three-year campaign to stop the
building of the Ilisu damn in Turkey was ultimately successful and saved
78,000 Kurds from being displaced.
