MIDDLE EAST: Memorabilia collectors who missed the chance to get a piece of the Berlin Wall when it tumbled more than a decade ago can pre-purchase sections of what some have called its Middle East counterpart.
An Israeli artist is "selling" portions of the controversial Israeli security barrier, the part wall, part fence which the Jewish state is building in the occupied West Bank. Mr Yoav Weiss from Tel Aviv is taking bookings for sections of the 25ft concrete part of the barrier, which cuts off 11,000 residents of the Arab West Bank village of Abu Dis from annexed east Jerusalem.
And it's going cheap, at 10 shekels (€2) per square metre of reinforced concrete which Weiss has started marking off with black broken lines.
"I'm going to paint off sections of the wall and number them and photograph them and then sell them by e-mail," said the 36-year-old artist. "The trouble with Berlin is that it was chaos. Everyone was just helping themselves. Here you will have the satisfaction of knowing your piece of history is standing here waiting for you. In fact, it's an investment. It'll probably be worth much more by the time the wall comes down."
While the venture is more concept art than real estate commerce, Weiss happily pocketed 50 shekels from his first customer as he took part in a demonstration by Israeli and Palestinian artists against the barrier on Thursday night.
"Do you want five pieces or a five-metre section?" he inquired, defending his right, as an Israeli citizen, to sell off parts of the structure without consulting the authorities.
The Abu Dis wall is part of a 437-mile (728km) network of electrified wire fences, ditches, patrol roads, trenches, look-out towers and short concrete segments, which is being built around Jerusalem and inside the West Bank.
Israel says the barrier is vital to counter terrorist attacks on its citizens and can be dismantled if necessary, but the Palestinians say it is a de facto annexation of territory they want for a future state. They have dubbed it an "apartheid wall" and have compared it to the Berlin Wall, which divided Germany for almost three decades before it fell in 1989.
The International Court of Justice the Hague is currently deliberating on the legality of the structure after the UN's General Assembly sought its opinion at hearings last February which Israel boycotted.
At Thursday night's peaceful demonstration, small crowds gathered on each side of the towering structure and projected video images of themselves on to the smooth concrete surface of the wall on the opposite side. The good-humoured protesters were able to wave at each other and give the brief visual illusion that the structure was not there.