ABOUT THE AUTHOR - CHRISTA BRUHN

Christa Bruhn is an American author, photographer, and culinary artist with a lifelong passion for peace and justice. She is the daughter of a German immigrant raised under Nazi Germany and the mother of three Palestinian Americans. She holds degrees in International Studies (BA), Middle Eastern & North African Studies (MA), and Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis (PhD). She has studied six languages, including Hebrew, and can speak four, including Arabic. She has published academic work on Palestine, peace education, and diversity, and led and participated in roundtables on the future of Palestine and Israel.

“I walk across the still-invisible line, where the Wall will soon cut the town of Al-Ram off from Jerusalem. There, on the other side I find a flatbed with prefabricated segments in full view, like a toy truck with blocks on it, awaiting a child to put the pieces in place, set the sections neatly next to each other so his mother can praise him for aligning them just right. But these are no blocks, and this is no child’s play.

I am baffled at how Palestinians are walking around, going on with their day, as if nothing is happening, and yet their lives are being redefined one slab of concrete at a time. The Wall creates sides, borders, more restrictions on access, more confiscation of land. My stomach turns as I witness this crude vision of security become reality. One people’s security, another’s confinement. Gaza is already an outdoor prison. Now, the isolation of the West Bank behind concrete walls and electric fences is taking shape in front of me. Like in Berlin.”

—excerpt from Crossing Borders