"Racist" Cell Phone Advertising and the Separation Wall

Facebook is abuzz with hate regarding an Israeli cell phone commercial dubbed "Racist." You can see it below. Cellcom, one of Israel's cell phone providers (the original word for "cell phone" was "cellcom") has a history of making hip, "cool" ads.

While, like an Israeli movie, Palestinians are notable in their absence, the (presumed) Palestinians on the other side of the wall literally hold the ball in this commercial. Fun is a function of when they decide to pop the ball back over the wall. The wall masks the soldiers from confrontation, from their real mission. The ball is an ambassador of peace, a bouncing olive branch. It's precisely because of the wall that the encounter happens at all.

Don't misunderstand me: I wish there was no need for a wall, and I wish the wall had been built on Israeli, not Palestinian territory when possible. But the wall has helped protect Israelis from suicide and car bombings and, until the Palestinians themselves can figure out to govern themselves in a law-abiding manner, Israel has to protect itself.

But these interactions, as small and commercialized as they might be, are continuing signals that the wall is a barrier to healthy interaction, and a reason that it's sons and daughters must continue to be drafted in its looming service.