This is a real site "off the beaten track"! We came across it by chance one day, when we took the wrong route close to the Lebanese border at Shtula. From here you can see the Blue Line―literally!
The blue-painted barrel on a post beyond the fence is just that―a blue barrel on a post! It is right by the road at Horvat Kochim. It is the literal reason why the border demarcation between Lebanon and Israel, published by the United Nations on 7 June 2000 for the purposes of determining whether Israel had fully withdrawn from Lebanon, is called the Blue Line. It is literally marked by these blue-painted barrels on posts.
It was a few hundred metres from here, at Nahal Betzet, at point 105, that Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were abducted, from a routine patrol along the northern border―the opening shot for the Second Lebanon War on 12/07/2006. There is a monument to them at Me'arat HaKeshet. At point 105 there is another memorial, in the form of a mural painted on the concrete barrier which protects the road from the border.
Now to Talking Walls! A longer protective concrete barrier was erected immediately east of the village of Shtula, to protect the inhabitants from cross-border firing. Under the auspices of the Regional Council of Ma'ale Yosef, international graffiti artists, and members of Artists4Israel, painted murals on the barrier in the hope of bringing beauty and healing to the area. Below is a slideshow of the murals.
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